Always there
by Ultimate Queen of Cliffies
Summary: Fiyero and Elphaba are together... or so he thought. So he is completely stunned when he returns to Shiz after the summer, only to find that she has a new boyfriend. Little does Fiyero know that there is more to it than it seems. Shiz-era, Fiyeraba.
1. The prince

**AN: "Nooo, Maddy, are you starting _another _story?"**

**The answer to that is... well, given the fact that you're currently reading the AN to a new story, I'd say the answer is yes :3.**

**You know me - when inspiration strikes, it needs to get out right away and it needs to be fuelled by reviews. So... here it is.**

**This first chapter is very light and introductory; they're not all going to be like that, but I still have to decide how heavy or sad, exactly, this story is going to be. For now, let me bring back an OC I quite liked :).**

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**Chapter 1. A prince**

"Behold!" a voice boomed through the throne room of Adurin Iir. "His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Fiyero Hamold Tiggular of the Vinkus! Isn't he just the finest young man you have ever seen! Look at that dazzling smile, that perfect hair, those strong muscles! What you are looking at right now is the most handsome person found in all of Oz! Oh, people, your eyes will never be treated to a prettier sight! Such grace, such intelligence…"

"Such arrogance," Cyara, who had been watching him, added sarcastically. She rolled her eyes. "Oz, Yero, believe me when I say that I can't _wait _to see you going back to Shiz."

Fiyero - who had been making his way up to his father's throne with a blinding smile on his face, waving at his imaginary audience – paused his self-promoting speech to cast that same blinding smile in his younger sister's direction. He plopped down onto his father's throne, swinging his legs over one arm of it and resting his elbow on the other so that he was casually draped across the elaborately decorated chair, looking at his younger sister.

"Just two more days, sis," he said, wobbling his feet. "Then you're rid of me again until Lurlinemas."

"I can't wait." Cyara hopped down from her spot on a table that was standing against the wall – she had a bad habit of sitting on tables instead of chairs whenever she had the chance – and tucked the book she had been reading under her arm. "Really, I'll be happy to see you go."

Fiyero brought his hand to his forehead, as if he were a delicate upper-class lady that was about to faint. "Oh, good heavens above!" he cried in a mock-desperate voice. "What did I do to deserve this treatment from my own dear sister?"

Cyara sighed. "Sometimes I wonder who's the older sibling here," she muttered.

"But dear sister, don't you see that you have the best brother in all of Oz?" He struck a pose - which was quite the accomplishment, given that he was still half-lying on King Hamold's throne. "He is the most perfect creature ever in existence. So smart, so handsome, so perfect, so amazing, so –"

"Annoying?" Cyara supplied.

Fiyero glared at her.

"I'm going to leave now," she announced, walking towards the double doors that would lead her out into the hallway. "I think I've had enough Fiyero for today. An overdose might be lethal… or maybe it will damage my brain cells, which would _not _be good, because then I'd end up just like you."

"Oh, those poor peasants, becoming so incredibly overwhelmed by my beauty and charm!" Fiyero crooned, bringing his hand to his forehead once more. "Fear not, my humble people – if you stay around my dazzling perfection for long enough, it might rub off –"

At that point, Cyara turned and hurled her book in his direction. It hit him in the stomach, effectively cutting off his speech and simultaneously causing him to lose his balance and topple off the throne, hitting the floor with a loud _thump_.

He grunted. "_Ouch_."

"Oh, no!" Cyara said in mock shock. "His Royal Highness' dazzling perfection has just hit the ground! Let us all grieve this horrendible loss!" She smirked at her brother. "Maybe the blow will cause his ego to deflate, before it grows to be so big that he will need his very own country to fit it in! I heard there's lots of space in the Badlands…" she added innocently.

Fiyero shook his head, but he was grinning. "You know? I think you would get along really well with Elphaba."

"I've been wanting to ask you about that." Cyara approached her brother and perched on her mother's throne, looking at Fiyero. "What's going on with you and this mysterious Elphaba?"

"Nothing," he said, shrugging. "We're just friends."

She arched one eyebrow. "Is that why you have brought her up at least ten times a day this summer? And by that I mean _every single day_, _all summer long_?" she asked him teasingly.

Much to her satisfaction, he flushed a little. "I didn't do that!" he protested. "I mean… sure, I've brought her up a lot, but… but I've been talking a lot about _all _my friends. You know, Nessa, Boq, Galinda…"

"Uh-uh." Cyara nodded seriously. "Yet I know almost nothing about those latter three friends, while you've been telling us _everything _about Elphaba."

Fiyero opened his mouth to protest, but his sister was quicker. She started counting on her fingers. "I know that Boq is a Munchkin, that Nessa is Elphaba's sister who is in a wheelchair and that Galinda is your blonde ex-girlfriend and Elphaba's best friend and roommate. That's all you ever told us about those three people."

Fiyero closed his mouth, looking down at his feet a bit sheepishly. His sister was right, after all.

"And then there's Elphaba." Cyara tilted her head a little to the side. "I know that she's twenty-one years old and that her father is the Governor of Munchkinland. I know that she's been taking care of her sister her entire life and that her mother died in childbirth with Nessa when Elphaba was still very young. I know she has green skin and has been ostracised and bullied a lot because of it – and still is, according to what you've told us. I know that she's really smart and that she topped the year – though I honestly can't understand why she would befriend _you_, of all people, if she's so intelligent."

Fiyero muttered something inappropriate under his breath.

Cyara, however, ignored him and just went on. "I know she has dark brown eyes, because when you told us about them you looked all dreamy, like you were drowning in those eyes even when you only saw them in your imagination." She batted her eyelashes and pursed her lips. "Oh, Elphaba, your eyes are so _beautiful_!" she cooed. "I'm so in love with you, Elphaba! Your hair is so black and so long and so silky, Elphaba! Elphaba, I love you, will you marry me?" She started making kissing noises.

Fiyero buried his face in his hands in embarrassment.

Cyara giggled. "Are you going to admit it or do I need to go on?" she asked, her green eyes twinkling with mischief.

Fiyero heaved a deep sigh, which Cyara took as her sign to continue mocking him.

"Elphaba, let me sweep you off your feet and take you home to my beautiful castle!" she said, trying to imitate her brother's voice. "We will mount my noble steed and I will protect you with my gorgeous, handsome, oh-so-muscular body so that no harm may come to you on our way to the Vinkus! I will make you the wife and the princess of the most _perfect _man in all of Oz! Now who could decline such an offer?" She made her voice sound normal again as she said thoughtfully, "I bet _she _would decline that offer, if she really is as smart as you say she is. I mean, it's bad enough that she's friends with you – though that could just be because, you know, she's probably a genuinely nice person and she felt bad for you and your castle-sized ego…"

Fiyero snorted.

"…but I bet she would _never _let your arrogant playboy prince talk sway her," Cyara finished. "Face it, Fiyero – she's too good for you."

"She is," Fiyero agreed, much to his sister's surprise. Her confusion only grew when she saw the soft smile that spread across his face and realised that he was staring off into the distance without seeing anything and he was looking dreamy again.

He shook his head, as if shaking off a daydream, and looked at his sister. "Cy, can you keep a secret?"

She dramatically put one hand over her heart. "I will guard your secret with my life."

He rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. "Me and Elphaba, we're… we're kind of together," he admitted.

Cyara blinked. "But… but I thought you said…"

"It happened just before the summer," Fiyero said. "A week or so before we would all go home. We've only been on two dates so far, and we've only kissed even once – the day she left back for Munchkinland… it's not really a _relationship _yet, or anything, but… but it's heading that way."

Cyara was struck speechless. Not so much by the idea of her brother having a relationship – for the past few years it had been a rarity for him _not _to have some girl by his side at all times – but mostly because of the way he was talking about this… thing… between him and Elphaba. He sounded more serious than she had ever seen him about these things.

"Mum and Dad were right," she observed, clearly surprised by that conclusion. "You really have changed."

He looked at her. "You didn't think I had?"

She shrugged a bit apologetically. "Honestly? I thought it was just a phase," she said. "You've been dancing through life for so long, I figured you'd fall back into your old behaviour again soon enough. But you're… you're really different." She took him in. "It's because of her, isn't it?" she asked, though it was more of a statement than it was a question. "Because of Elphaba."

"Yes," he admitted.

She grinned excitedly. "Yero is finally starting a serious relationship!" She jumped up and hugged her brother, pretending to wipe away an emotional tear. "My dear little Yero, all grown up!"

That earned her a punch in the arm, but she just punched him back.

"Seriously, though, Yero," she said. "This is huge."

He nodded, that dreamy smile appearing again. "I know."

Cyara studied him for a moment. "So why didn't you tell us?" she asked. "That you and Elphaba are dating?"

"She didn't want me to," he admitted. "I think she's afraid that she's going to jinx our relationship or something if we start telling people about it too soon. She's never had a boyfriend before, or… or anything even remotely like it. Her own father hates her, her sister mostly just treats her like a servant… she's never even had a real friend until she came to Shiz."

Cyara grimaced. "That must've been awful."

Fiyero nodded. "So you see why she's hesitant to go too fast with this," he said. "She doesn't want it to end, and she has this crazy idea that she's going to screw up sooner or later and that I'm going to leave her, or something…" He shook his head. "I'm not planning to do that," he said. "But I need to convince her of that."

Cyara was quiet for a while. "That's really sweet," she then said softly.

Fiyero smiled faintly at her. "So you see why I want to give her the time she needs," he said. "I'll tell Mum and Dad about it, of course; but not until Elphaba says it's okay. I don't want to lose her."

His sister looked up at him. "Yero?" she said quietly. "I know I'm always teasing you and everything, but…" She smiled at him. "I'm really proud of you."

He grinned at her. "Aw, thanks, sis." He hugged her, briefly but tightly, before letting go again. "Don't tell Mum and Dad about it, please?"

"I won't," she promised.

She thought about it for a few moments. "Who else knows?" she asked curiously.

"Galinda, Nessa and Boq," Fiyero said. "We couldn't hide it from Glin if we wanted to – she is Elphaba's roommate, after all. Same goes for Nessa, because that girl notices _everything_." He shook his head. "We then decided to tell Boq as well, but they all know that we don't want anyone else to know about it yet and they respect that. It's… it's still new, and kind of secretive… but it's definitely serious. Fae already agreed on another date the moment we get back to Shiz."

Cyara furrowed her brow. "Fae?" she echoed.

He flushed a little. "That's my nickname for her," he admitted, shuffling his feet a little uncomfortably.

Cyara smiled. "Did you two write over the summer?"

He laughed softly. "We all wrote," he said. "Galinda, Boq, Elphaba – back and forth. But yes, I did write to her. A lot. Like… three or four letters a week."

"I didn't know you could even write that much," Cyara teased him.

He stuck out his tongue.

"Ask her to come back here for Lurlinemas," Cyara then suggested. "I'd love to meet her, and I bet Mum and Dad would, too – especially once they learn about the two of you being together."

His face brightened. "I will," he said, nodding enthusiastically. "I'd love to show her Adurin Iir, and the Vinkus… and to introduce her to you guys. I'll ask her."

"Yero?" Hamold poked his head into the room. "Your mother wants to know if you've already packed your things."

Fiyero groaned. "No," he said defensively. "Of course not. I still have two entire days for that!"

Hamold winked at him. "Sorry, son," he said. "Queen's orders."

Fiyero grumbled something unintelligible and stomped off.

His father followed him. "So I couldn't help but overhear part of that conversation between you and your sister…" he began.

Fiyero sighed.

"From what I understand, you're together with someone… a girl, I'm going to assume…"

Fiyero rolled his eyes. "No, I'm together with a loaf of bread," he said sarcastically. "We're really happy together."

Hamold grinned at him. "Yero…"

"Yes, of course a girl, Dad."

Hamold's grin widened. "Good." He looked at his son attentively for a few moments. "I heard you talking to your sister about inviting this girl over for Lurlinemas."

"Yes." Fiyero turned towards his father. "Look," he said apologetically. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I promised her I wouldn't. We haven't been dating for long, and she's very insecure… she asked me not to say anything to anyone just yet."

Hamold smiled. "So you and Elphaba _are _together. Your mother and I were wondering whether you just didn't tell us about it or you didn't even know it yet yourself."

Fiyero was stunned. "I never said it was Elphaba!" he protested. "And –"

"Fiyero," his father interrupted him. "We're your parents. You're an open book to us." He squeezed the prince's shoulder. "We noticed the way you talked about her… you're really serious about her, aren't you? Both as a friend and as… something else."

"Yes," Fiyero said immediately.

Hamold smiled at his son. "Okay then. Your sister is right, Yero – you should invite her over for Lurlinemas. We'd love to finally meet her."

"I will," Fiyero promised. He felt a little uneasy about having broken his promise to Elphaba; but at the same time he was sort of relieved that his father knew. He hated keeping secrets from his parents, and he didn't want to keep his relationship with Elphaba hidden. Had it been up to him, all of Oz would know about it by now.

He watched his father walk away, but his mind was elsewhere. Two more days, he realised, and slowly a broad grin spread across his face. Two more days and then he would see Elphaba again.

He could hardly wait.

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**Also, I'd like to ask you all a random question. I'm working on a story and I need a gender for a baby. I'm completely indecisive, so I would appreciate your input. **

**So, if you forget about any baby genders I used in my fanfics before - do you vote boy or do you vote girl? ^_^**


	2. The university

**AN: 11 reviews on the very first chapter! Wow, thank you guys so much!**

**I love how you all immediately assumed it would be a Fiyeraba baby (most of you, anyway). Who says it's not a Glinda/OC baby? Or a Madame Morrible baby, or an Elmain baby? Did I ever say the baby was for a Wicked fanfic at all? I didn't, did I? **

**Elphaba'sGirl, I love your theory on it. Yes, it's for my original story, and normally I would do exactly as you said, weren't it that that story is written half from Xav's point of view and half from Cenna's, so the opposite gender of the main character is not really an option :'). **

**I'm just going to think about it a little bit more.**

**PrincessKadenceofMusic: Yes, I brought Cyara back from an older fanfic of mine, 'Made to be broken' :).**

**Musicgal3: You're right. You know me, don't you? This will most likely become pretty angsty, and not just because of heated arguments between Elphaba and Fiyero.**

**Kudos to Sander for reviewing. Hi, Sander! (He's actually one of the... um... one... people I know in real life who reads my stories :P. Remember the Shakespeare film project I told you about? (If not, I refer you to my blog.) He's part of the production team as well.)**

**And last but not least:**

**I'd like to dedicate this chapter to ThroppSister. I saw you even mentioned me in your profile - I'm really honoured, and I'm so glad I can help you just a little bit by writing these stories. Thank you so much, and I hope you'll be okay soon 3.**

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**Chapter 2. The university**

"Yero?" the Queen called as he passed by the sitting room. "Would you mind coming in here for a moment?"

"Sure." He entered the room and plopped down in a comfortable armchair. "What's up?"

His mother rolled her eyes. "Your father told me about Elphaba," she said. "That's what's 'up'."

He grinned at her.

"Yero, I think it's amazing that you're this serious about a relationship," she said honestly. "But your father and I talked, and we just want you to be careful."

Fiyero frowned. "Careful? About what?"

Lori sighed. "I wish I could tell you it doesn't matter," she said softly. "But it does. Fiyero… you're the Crown Prince of the Vinkus, and as such, the things you do… the people you see… can have political consequences."

He was still confused. "Yes," he said. "Dad gave me this speech about a thousand times when I was still partying and drinking all the time. I thought you would be happy to see that I am settling down, focusing more on my studies, actually fell in love with someone…"

Lori smiled softly. "We are happy," she assured him. "Really. But –"

Fiyero's eyes had narrowed. "Is this about her being green?" he demanded. "Because in that case, I'm going to get up and leave _right now_ and –"

"No, Fiyero," his mother said with a sigh. "Of course this is not about her being green. Do you really think we're _that _shallow?"

He kept silent.

"What I was going to say is that you know about… about the Glikkun attacks."

Fiyero nodded – he had heard about those attacks, as had everyone in Oz by now. Apparently some Glikkuns were trying to spread fear. Some people said that they were looking to expand their territory; others claimed that they were just terrorists. It was a fact, however, that they had attacked several targets all throughout Oz and there had been many casualties. A City Hall in Munchkinland, some robberies in the Vinkus and on the Yellow Brick Road – there had even been an attack on the Emerald Palace, though that one had been struck down by the Gale Force and the terrorists had been arrested.

Still, there were more of them. Many, many more. What had really caused the unrest in Oz to reach a high was the attack on a primary school in Gillikin not two months ago. Hundreds of young children had been killed, and the Wizard had gathered the leaders of the other provinces to make sure something would be done about this.

"There have been rumours," Lori began, "about the Governor of Munchkinland, Elphaba and Nessarose's father, trying to placate the Glikkun terrorists by forming an alliance with the Glikkus."

Fiyero frowned. "Why in Oz would he do that?" he wanted to know. "He'll be stronger on our side. Gillikin is with us, so is the Wizard, and with Munchkinland –"

"I know," Lori cut him off. "But Governor Thropp is worried that his home will be the next target. After the attack on the Emerald Palace, and the one last week on the Duke and Duchess of Gillikin, he has grown afraid."

Fiyero had to admit that he couldn't blame the man.

"He is trying to reach an agreement with the Glikkus. I'm not sure what he is doing – grant the Glikkuns free passage through Munchkinland, maybe; or promising some Glikkun people a high position in his government… but the point is, people are starting to grow suspicious. They fear Munchkinland is siding with the terrorists, and, of course, that is not a good thing – especially not after the attack on that school this summer…"

"Mum," Fiyero interrupted her. "I know. I understand. I've heard it all. But what in Oz does that have to do with me and Elphaba?"

Lori sighed. "I just want you to be careful, Yero," she said. "I wish I could tell you that you can do whatever you please; but it remains a fact that you are the Crown Prince of the Vinkus, and if things get ugly, if the rest of Oz turns towards Munchkinland… you and Elphaba may have a hard time being together. This thing could quickly turn into a full-blown war between the Glikkus and Munchkinland on one side and Gillikin, the Vinkus and the Emerald City on the other, and if it does… you're the heir to the Vinkun throne, she's the heir to the Governorship of Munchkinland. It might not end well."

"Okay." Fiyero rose to his feet and paced back and forth, counting on his fingers. "One: Elphaba is not the heir to the Governorship of Munchkinland. Nessa is."

Lori opened her mouth to say something, surprised, but Fiyero cut her off before she could make a sound, explaining, "The Governor doesn't want her to rule Munchkinland because she is green and he is the meanest, stupidest, most superficial jerk in all of Oz."

Lori closed her mouth again and just nodded, silently encouraging him to go on.

"Two," he said, turning to look at the Queen again, "everything you've just mentioned is a possibility. This _might _become a war. People _might _think this, the Governor _might _do that. Maybe this won't even become a war. Maybe the Governor is not forming an alliance with the Glikkus at all. Maybe the people don't care who I'm dating. Maybe _I _don't care whether the people care who I'm dating!"

"I'm not saying you should stop seeing her," Lori said calmly. "I wouldn't want you to. She's changed you – for the better. Yero, all I'm saying is that you should be prepared for anything."

He nodded. "I will," he said. "I'll keep it in mind. But until something actually happens, I'm just going to date Elphaba. We'll see to anything else when it happens, okay?"

Lori smiled at him as she rose to her feet and embraced him. "I'm proud of you, Yero."

He rolled his eyes, but he was grinning at the same time.

* * *

The entire carriage ride, Fiyero was all but bouncing in his seat – up to the point where the carriage driver threw an annoyed look over his shoulder. "Your Highness, would you mind sitting still?" he asked, sounding perfectly polite, but Fiyero could hear the annoyed undertone of the man's voice. He just grinned at the carriage driver and tried to sit still; but within a minute, his leg was wobbling again and before he knew it, he had gone back to bouncing.

The carriage driver just heaved a sigh.

The moment the carriage came to a halt, Fiyero jumped out, leaving the driver to take care of his suitcases. He looked around him, but before he even had the chance to see if he could catch a glimpse of green, a loud squeal sounded across the courtyard.

"Fifi!" Galinda came running towards him, jumping him and throwing her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, I missed you _so much_! I just _have _to tell you about this cute Gillikin boy I met and –"

"Whoa, Glin," he cut her off, gently but firmly pushing her off of him. "Don't you have friends for that? Girls, I mean? What makes you think I want to hear about your cute Gillikin boy?"

She pouted. "Oh, Fifi, please!" she whined. "Elphie isn't here yet, and even if she were, she wouldn't care about my Gillikin cupcake, and Pfannee, Shenshen and Milla are all just… ugh. They would only care about how handsome he is and how much money he has. But that's not even why I'm dating him! Can you believe that? I'm dating him because he's a _genuinely nice person_ – wow, I never thought I'd say this… Seriously, though, he's really gentlemanly and kind, and he treats me like a lady… of course he's also handsome, you know – he's got brown hair, like, the colour of…" She thought about that for a moment, cocking her head. "Coffee… you know, coffee with milk and sugar… cappuccino, maybe? Or… latte macchiato? Or milk chocolate… yes, that's it! The colour of milk chocolate! And his eyes are just _dreamy_, but that's not all there is to him! He's actually really smartified, and –"

"Galinda, no offense," he interrupted her, "but I don't really want to hear all this. I mean, I'm happy for you, of course," he hastened to reassure her, "but why would I care what colour his hair is?"

She sighed and grumbled. "You were right before," she said, sticking her nose up in the air. "I think I'm going to find Pfannee, Shenshen and Milla. Goodbye, Fiyero. Nice to see you again." With that and a huff, she turned on her heels and stalked off.

Fiyero suppressed a grin.

Galinda had said that Elphaba hadn't arrived yet, which a visit to Madame Morrible confirmed – Nessa wasn't there. "I expect them later today," Morrible told him, at which he nodded and thanked her, then left the room.

With nothing else to do, he just started unpacking his suitcases – a job which he found the most boring thing in the world.

Clothes – closet. Extra blanket – top shelf in closet. Shoes – bottom of closet. Pencils and notebooks – desk. Toothbrush and toothpaste – bathroom.

Only then he found out that didn't remember where he had put the present he had bought for Elphaba; and so he started randomly pulling things from his suitcase and tossing them around the room in his search for the wrapped present. By the time he had found it, his room was covered in layers of clothes, pieces of paper, notebooks and other things that probably weren't supposed to be on the floor, but Fiyero could care less.

He waited in his room for some time, hoping that Elphaba would come to find him the moment she returned; but then he realised that Galinda would probably find her friend first and whisk her away to their dorm room for the rest of the day, which he really didn't want. Eventually, he left his room and went to sit on a low stone pillar in the courtyard, watching the arriving and departing carriages, hoping to catch a glimpse of green.

He didn't see it, but he did see Boq at some point. Jumping to his feet, he ran over towards the carriage the Munchkin had stepped down from.

"Hey, Boq!" he greeted the other boy.

"Fiyero!" Boq smiled at him. "Good to see you again. Did you have a nice summer?"

Fiyero shrugged, trying to peek inside the carriage. "It was alright."

"You're just in time," Boq said, tugging at the taller man's arm. "Could you help me get Nessa into her chair? The thing is so heavy…"

Fiyero's heart started beating faster – if Nessa was here, that meant Elphaba had to be, too! He had to be patient, however – first he helped Boq get the chair down from the roof of the carriage, and then he had to hold it still as Boq lifted Nessa out of the carriage and into her chair. She smiled up at the Munchkin. "Thank you, Boq."

He returned her smile.

Fiyero, who had been wondering why Elphaba hadn't exited the carriage to help as well – usually she was the first one to jump forward to assist her sister – was now peering into the carriage. His face fell when he saw that it was empty.

Nessa and Boq shared a slightly uncomfortable look. "Are you looking for Fabala?" Nessa asked softly. "She arrived here earlier… earlier today. She had someone else to escort her."

Fiyero frowned, puzzled, but he wasn't worried. Why would he be? "Okay… I must have missed her, then."

"Galinda probably kidnapped her the moment she set foot on campus," Boq told Fiyero with a small grin that looked a little bit too forced. "I guess she's in her dorm room."

"She'll come to look for you later," Nessa assured him. "When Galinda lets her go. I believe she wanted to see you."

Nessa _believed _that Fae wanted to see him? Fiyero's frown deepened. Both Boq and Nessa were acting strange, wriggling around all uncomfortably and forcing smiles and pretending to act normal while really, they weren't acting normal at all. "What is going on?"

They exchanged another one of those looks. "Nothing!" Boq blurted out, while at the same time Nessa said, "You'll have to ask Fabala."

Suddenly he _was _worried.

Without another word, he turned around and headed towards the girls' dorm room, making his way up the stairs and knocking on Elphaba and Galinda's door. "Fae?"

No response.

"Fae? Glin? Are you in there?"

He pressed his ear against the wood, but he didn't hear anything. Maybe they were out for coffee, or something. He decided to head back down and go search for them at the local café.

They weren't there, either, however; and no matter where he looked, he didn't find either of them.

"Where could she be?" he asked Boq desperately when the two of them were having dinner with some of the other boys. "I thought she would come to talk to me straight away, but…"

"Maybe she's sick of you." Avaric belched.

"Sick…" One of the other boys laughed. He laughed like a whinnying horse, Fiyero noted with growing irritation. "The Artichoke… sick… I think you're right, Av – she does look a little green to me!"

Avaric grinned at the boy. Boq cast his eyes heavenward with a sigh. Fiyero just gritted his teeth and ignored all the other boys.

Just then, the door to the café opened and a bubbly blonde walked in. She was dressed in a sky blue summer dress, matched with a pair of white heels with small straps, a white stash around her waist and a white-and-blue flower in her hair. She was alone, but still – she might know where Elphaba was.

"Glin!" Fiyero called, waving at her. The moment she saw him, her face fell and she started shuffling in that same uncomfortable way Nessa and Boq had earlier.

"Hi, Fiyero," she said timidly. The fact that she didn't use his nickname told him that something was off more than anything else. He pushed his chair back and walked over to her, touching her arm lightly.

"Where's Fae?" he asked her.

She shrugged his hand off. "She took Nessa out to dinner," she said. "In town. I'm just here to meet Milla and Pfannee."

He studied her face for a moment. "There's something you're not telling me."

She spluttered weakly, but he pressed on. "Tell me, Glin. Every time I ask about Fae, everyone starts acting all weird. What's wrong? Is she alright?" His eyes suddenly widened. "She's not sick or something, is she? Glin?"

"No, Fiyero, she's not sick." Galinda sighed and twirled a perfect golden curl around her finger. "She's… she's fine. Really," she added when she saw the disbelief in his face. "She just… Oh, Fifi, I can't tell you this – she should. Go talk to her."

"I've been trying to talk to her all day long!" he exclaimed, frustrated. "Would someone _please _just tell me what the problem is? Why is she nowhere to be found? What has she been doing all day long? Why won't she come and talk to me? I thought she liked me…"

Galinda's face softened. "She does like you, Fifi." She placed her hand on his arm. "And I can tell you where she's been all day – I dragged her out to Suicide Canal the moment she arrived and we had a picnic so that we could share stories about our summer, and then she left for town with Nessa. Fifi, I'm not going to tell you anything, but maybe… maybe you thought that was between you was more than it really was," she said gently.

He frowned. "What? What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

Galinda sighed. "It means that maybe you've been reading too much in the two dates you and Elphaba went on," she said. "That's all I'm going to say."

Fiyero felt as if he had been punched. "What?" he asked her faintly. "What… what do you mean? We wrote all summer, I thought… I thought we were good…"

Then he remembered how at some point, her letters had come less frequently; and if they did come, they were distant and not as long as they had been before. He hadn't really worried about it – he figured that not much was happening over there in Munchkinland that she could tell him about, and maybe her father was keeping her busy. He knew she had to run the household when she was at home.

Now, however, he was starting to worry that there might be more to it than he had originally thought.

"I'll send her over to your dorm room the moment she returns from town," Galinda promised him, her face almost… sympathetic.

He nodded, dazed and confused. He suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.

"I'm going back to my room," he muttered to the other boys, tossing some money on the table. He ignored their protests and questions and left the café, making his way straight back to his room, where he sat down and waited for Elphaba to come by.

She didn't show up all night.

Eventually he fell asleep in the chair he had been sitting in, only to startle himself awake again when he shifted and his hand fell away from underneath his head. He stretched and looked at the clock. It was past midnight already. There was no way she would still be coming by now.

He slowly got up and started to change into his pyjamas, then crawled into his bed. _Maybe she just got back from town really late_, he reasoned to himself. _Maybe she and Nessa were having a good time and by the time she returned to her room it was late already. She'll come to talk to me tomorrow._

Not feeling reassured at all, he eventually drifted off to sleep again.


	3. The boyfriend

**AN: Yeah, poor Yero, huggles for him... it'll only get worse :P.**

**Elphaba'sGirl: I just counted my characters (the more important ones, that is - the ones that actually have names :P) in my original story. Exactly as many men/boys as women/girls . So that doesn't help much, either... and the thing is: no, it's not a Xavenna baby (don't you just love that ship name? Sorry, I had to do that ^_^). I'm not going to say whose baby it is, because I don't want to spoiler, but it's not Xav and Cenna's. I'm going to have to give this some more thought.**

**ThroppSister: You're welcome! I know that sometimes, small things can make a huge difference; and I'm glad I could do this for you. It's good to see that you'll be alright eventually. Good luck with everything!**

* * *

**Chapter 3. The boyfriend**

"Fae!" His heartbeat sped up when he saw her walking on the other side of the courtyard, talking to and laughing with some other guy. In that moment, he truly did not see anything wrong with that picture – he just saw her having found herself another friend, which he was glad about. The more people could see the beautiful person she really was, the better. In that moment, as he ran towards them, he didn't see the way that they were holding hands; or the loving look on the boy's face; or the blush and the small smile on Elphaba's.

He saw it, however, when he came closer… and he did not like it.

"Elphaba?" he asked again, and she spun around. She looked as if she was a small child that had just been busted whilst trying to steal a cookie from the cookie jar.

"Fiyero!" She bit her lip and avoided his gaze. Quickly, she pushed the other boy forward. "Gaz, this is Fiyero. Fiyero, this is Gazilon. I met him last summer in Munchkinland."

Fiyero nodded politely at the other boy, though he felt a growing desire to punch him in the face. Gazilon returned the nod. "Fiyero…" he repeated. He glanced quickly at Elphaba. "I've heard so much about you."

"All bad things, I hope," he joked, but inwardly he was cheering. If she had been talking to this guy about him, maybe he was reading this all wrong. Maybe she just wasn't jumping into his arms and kissing his face off because they were in public.

Not that Elphaba would _ever _jump into his arms and kiss his face off. She was Elphaba, after all.

"And all true," Elphaba quipped in response to his earlier remark. He grinned at her, and she returned the grin; but then she caught Gazilon looking at her and she suddenly began acting awkward again.

"Look, Fiyero, I…" She took a deep breath. "We need to talk."

He nodded. "I agree. Let's go have coffee at the Primrose Café," he suggested. "Just the two of us," he added with a wink.

She shuffled back and forth. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

She looked up at Gazilon for a moment, who gave her a sympathetic look and Fiyero an apologetic one. Fiyero immediately bristled when he saw that. Since when was Elphaba sharing looks with _this _guy instead of with him? And why was this Gazilon looking at him as if he was saying sorry? Well, he _would _be sorry once Fiyero was done with him!

"Yero…" His heart leapt up when she used his nickname, but the look on her face unnerved him completely.

She sighed. "There's no good way to tell you this," she said softly, "so I'm just going to get it over with."

He nodded, not saying anything, but dreading what was to come.

Elphaba hugged Gazilon's arm, moving closer to his side. "Fiyero, Gaz and I are together," she said.

For the second time in two days, he felt like he had been punched. Hard. He could only gape at her, not a sound coming out of his mouth.

"Look," Elphaba said apologetically, looking up at Gazilon for a moment – which made Fiyero want to rip the other boy's head off and stuff it up his… He stopped himself before he could finish that thought.

"Fiyero, we just went on _two _dates," Elphaba reminded him. "We kissed only once. And I loved being around you, don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the time we spent together. But we weren't _together_. They were just a couple of dates, and… and then we didn't see each other for three whole months." She looked up at Gazilon again. "I met Gaz about three weeks into summer vacation," she said. "His parents travel throughout all of Oz, and they spent this summer in Munchkinland. One thing led to another…" She shrugged. "We fell in love."

_Deep breaths, Fiyero._ He felt like he was going to faint. How was he supposed to breathe again? _In, out. In, out._

"We've been together for two months this Friday," Gazilon announced proudly and Elphaba smiled at him.

Then she looked back at Fiyero again. "Galinda told me she talked to you," she said. "Sorry I didn't come to see you yesterday; but I had promised I'd take Nessie to town for dinner, and before that, Galinda went all blonde-crazy on me about how 'amazifying' it was to see me again…" She laughed.

Fiyero didn't.

"…so I barely had the chance to spend any time alone with Gazilon," Elphaba continued. "That's why I got home so late last night – we went out."

"Out?" Fiyero, who finally found his voice again, managed to choke out. "Elphaba, you never go 'out'."

She shrugged. "I did now," she said. "I'm sorry, Fiyero… if I made you believe that this thing we had was more than it really was. But I've moved on from it, and I think you should, too." With that, she turned around, tugging on Gazilon's arm. "Come on, Gaz. Let's go have brunch."

Fiyero could only watch helplessly as they walked off.

* * *

He spotted Galinda across the courtyard, sitting on a bench under a tree, later that afternoon. There was a book in her hands, but he noticed she was peering over it and ogling a handsome boy on the other side of the courtyard, which would have made him roll his eyes, but he was too upset for that now. Instead, he immediately approached her and plopped down on the bench next to her.

"Okay," he said. "Spill. What do you know about this Gazilon guy?"

She eyed him up and down suspiciously. "What's in it for me?" she wanted to know.

He rolled his eyes and pointed at the boy she had been staring at. "He's in my Economics class. I could introduce you two."

"Deal." Galinda immediately put her book down and started counting it off on her fingers. "Gazilon Damaran. Twenty-three years old. Father stems from a wealthy and influential Glikkun family, mother grew up in the Emerald City. They're extremely rich – they own an apartment in the City and at least three mansions throughout Oz. They travel a lot and they were in Munchkinland this summer, where Elphaba met him. The boy already has two degrees in Politics and Literature – can you believe he was admitted to university in the Emerald City when he was only _sixteen_? – and here at Shiz he's doing a double major in Philosophy and Life Sciences with a minor in History. He's super-duper smart – dare I say it? He might even be smarter than Elphie herself – and for as far as I've seen it, he treats her like a princess." She shook her head. "Sorry, Fifi. You've been crushed like a bug. You know I love you, but you don't hold a candle to this guy. He's perfection in male form." She sighed dreamily. "And then I didn't even mention his body – did you see that golden hair? The dreamy brown eyes? The _muscles_? I know she would never admit it, but even Elphie can't be insensitive to those things. No girl is."

Fiyero chose to ignore the not-very-subtle insult towards him she'd thrown in and focused on the rest she had told him. "You've certainly paid this a lot of thought, haven't you?"

She nodded. "Ever since Elphie came back from her date very late last night and I started interrogating her," she said. "I mean, I'm her best friend. I should check her boyfriends over before things get too serious between them. And honestly, I can't find anything wrong with this guy." She wrinkled her nose. "Except maybe that he's too smart. But knowing Elphie, I don't think she will find that much of a problem."

"So how _did _she meet him?" Fiyero asked the blonde, desperate for anything that he could use against this guy.

"They rented a house in Munchkinland," said Galinda, "and his parents met up with Governor Thropp a few times – I don't know, to discuss political business-y stuff, I guess. Who cares. Anyway, one time Gazilon came with them and he wandered out into the garden, where Elphie was reading. From what she told me, I'm going to have to assume that it was love at first sight, though Elphie would kill me if I said that out loud to her – she doesn't believe in those things. But they started talking about smart-people-stuff I don't understand and there was a click. They became friends, went into town or for walks together a couple of times, and got officially together a few weeks later. He begged his parents if he could go to Shiz after the summer – he studied his first year in the Glikkus. His first year of Philosophy, Life Sciences and History, that is. He started taking those classes last year, right after he had gotten his degree in Politics and Literature. Elphie thinks that's totally admirable. I don't, really – but then again, I'm blonde, so what do I know?" She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Anyway, his parents agreed that he could go to Shiz with Elphie, so now he's in her classes. Philosophy, Life Sciences _and _History."

Well, at least Fiyero still had Law and Literature alone with her, he reasoned.

"Only because they're so in love and stuff, he accompanies her to all her classes," Galinda added. "Isn't that sweet? He sits through her other subjects with her, even though he's not taking one of them and has already gotten his degree in the other one. He does it purely because he wants to spend all his time with her! I mean, honestly – that is _so _romantic."

Fiyero's face fell.

"Thanks, Glin," he muttered and he made to stand up, but the blonde stopped him, her face softening.

"Yero," she said softly. "I know you really are in love with her."

He bit his lip and nodded.

"But if you love her," Galinda continued, "then you should want what's best for her… and I really think this Gazilon is making her happy."

Fiyero sighed and nodded again.

"So do me a favour," Galinda said, "and don't do anything stupid for once."

"You sound like my sister," Fiyero grumbled.

Galinda giggled softly. "Maybe your sister has a point."

He sighed again. "Fine, Glin. I'll _try _not to do anything stupid."

She giggled once more and patted his arm. "That's a good Fifi."

He grunted and pulled away from her, stomping off towards his dorm room.

* * *

"You."

Nessa looked up from her History book and immediately looked back down again. "No."

Fiyero blinked at her. "What do you mean, no?"

Nessa calmly sipped her tea and gingerly put her book on the table, smoothing out the pages. "I mean no. No, I'm not going to tell you anything, anything at all, about Fabala and her new boyfriend. It's her business, not mine. Just because Galinda is willing to tell you everything she knows in exchange for a date with some handsome boy, doesn't mean I am, too."

Fiyero sat down in the chair across from her, narrowing his eyes at the wheelchair-bound girl. "And in exchange for a date with Boq?"

She sighed deeply. "Fiyero, you can't bribe me," she said. "My lips are sealed."

He pouted.

She pressed her lips together.

He made googly eyes at her.

She glared at him.

He begged, "Pretty please, Nessa?"

She crossed her arms and shook her head.

"Why not?"

"Because," she said, picking up her tea cup and delicately taking a sip, "she is my sister and I don't want to tell people things about her behind her back. Not even you. If you want to know things, you're going to have to talk to Fabala." She looked at him. "All I'm going to say is that you better not meddle with affairs that are none of your business, Fiyero. I like seeing my sister happy."

"So do I," he interrupted her. "And I know she could be happy with me."

"She is happy with Gazilon," Nessa stressed. "You're not breaking them up, Fiyero. I won't allow it. She is my sister and I love her, and I will _not _sit idly by and watch as you and Gazilon fight over Fabala like she is a piece of meat. She's not. She's a person. She has feelings."

"I know that –"

"Then _look _at those feelings, Fiyero, and see them for what they are. There is no hidden motive here. She just didn't see you for three months and she fell in love with someone else. It happens all the time. I understand that's hard for you, but you're just going to have to accept it."

"We didn't _see _each other, but we wrote letters," Fiyero argues weakly.

Nessa looked at him with what looked an awful lot like pity. "That's not the same, Fiyero." She sighed. "I really am sorry. I liked you two together, I really did. But not everything lasts, and as long as Fabala is happy – and not doing anything inappropriate, of course, but she would never; Gazilon is too much of a gentleman for that – that's all that matters to me."

Fiyero put his arms on the table and rested his head on them, suddenly feeling tired.

"I'm also sorry I didn't tell you yesterday," Nessarose apologised. "I know Boq and I were acting rather strange, but we both agreed you needed to talk to Fabala first before we could tell you anything… and it was hard to act normal around you when you were so obviously eager to see Fabala." She touched his arm lightly. "This does not mean you can't see her anymore, Fiyero. You can still be friends, the way you were before."

"Friends?" Fiyero let out a hollow laugh. "Nessa… we've been friends for months," he said. "And every single day that we were friends, I have loved her. I fell in love with her the day Dr. Dillamond was fired, all those months ago. I thought she could never love me. That's why I was content with being her friend. And then she told me she _did _like me in that way, and I just…" He rubbed his face, fighting back tears he didn't want to spill in front of Nessa. "I love her. I really do. You have no idea how happy I was when I finally started believing that I might have a chance with her. I've been looking forward to seeing her again all summer long, waiting, counting the days, and… and she didn't even think about me. She just… fell in love with someone else."

Nessa looked at him sympathetically. "Those things happen, Fiyero."

"I know." He sighed and pushed his chair back. "Thanks for telling me, Nessa. If she really is happy…"

"She is," Nessa replied immediately.

Fiyero nodded. "Then I won't stand in her way."

With that, he left Nessa at her table and all but fled the café.


	4. The kiss

**AN: Funny to see how you all hate Gazilon right now... I think that'll change later on. I mean, the poor fellow has done nothing wrong at all... you'll see.**

**Severussnapefan123: that's true, isn't it? None of them are happy at the moment... :P GoGGP will get happy again soon, I can promise you that much.**

**Musicgal3: NO. YOU CAN'T HAVE FIYERO. HE'S MINE. MINE. MIIIIINE. MY PRECIOUSSSSSS. Okay, we're twins, right? (Non-biological - I'm just adding that to be sure :P.) We'll share him.**

**Elphaba'sGirl: I love all your baby-gender-logic... but I'm very sorry to tell you that neither of the parents has a strong preference for either gender :P. Keep on trying, though!**

* * *

**Chapter 4. The kiss**

Elphaba and Gazilon were sitting in a private corner of the Primrose Café. Two cups of coffee were standing on the table between them and they were both having a piece of pie – though their attention seemed to be more on each other than on the pie.

It had been a week now, and there had been no change. Elphaba and Gazilon seemed happier than ever. It was clear that Nessa was very happy for them both, and Galinda was, too, though she kept casting these sympathetic glances in Fiyero's direction. Apparently she was the only one realising that he was dying inside. Elphaba certainly didn't notice it.

He had kept his word to Nessa. He hadn't been trying to break them up. He, too, could see that Elphaba truly was happy with him; and Nessa had assured him that Gazilon was an honourable young gentleman. Fiyero had even sought refuge in the library, flicking through old newspapers. Gazilon's family came up more than once, but nothing came up that Fiyero could hold against the boy. His grandfather had been granted a medal of honour by the Wizard for his loyal services. His mother had a lot of family who lived in the Emerald City, all of high status. An uncle of Gazilon's was a mayor, his father a renowned businessman. Gazilon himself was even mentioned on the front page of the Emerald Courier, being pictured with the rest of his class as they had graduated two years ago. His name was mentioned in the article. Apparently he had passed his exams cum laude and the Wizard had already expressed his wish to see more of Gazilon in the future.

Yet another thing the stupid boy had in common with Elphaba. Out of all students the Wizard could pick to invite to come see him one day, he just _had _to pick both Elphaba and Gazilon. Galinda was even grumbling about the fact that the two of them seemed to be talking about it all the time – how badly they wanted to meet the Wizard, what they still needed to do in order to achieve that particular honour, in which classes they should get better grades to impress His Ozness and how long it would take before they would be officially invited – maybe they'd even be invited together.

Galinda liked Gazilon – as she had told Fiyero before, he was smart, handsome and kind, polite to everyone and very gentlemanly to the female students. They often hung out together – Elphaba, Gazilon, Galinda, Nessa and Boq.

Fiyero never joined them.

It wasn't because he wasn't invited – Galinda, Nessa and Boq pleaded with him to come along all the time, and even Gazilon invited him along a few times with one of those beaming smiles that made Fiyero's blood boil. It didn't escape his attention that Elphaba didn't ask him to come. Not once. In fact, she seemed to be avoiding him like the plague.

At first he had thought that there was something about their relationship that Fiyero didn't know. He had confronted Elphaba about it a few days ago.

"Are you getting married?" he had demanded. "Is that it? Your father set you up with him and pushed you into an arranged marriage?"

She had just stared at him, shocked.

He'd taken her shock as a sign that he had hit the nail on the head, and he had taken her hand. "Fae, you can tell me," he promised her. "We can figure this out together, and –"

She had yanked her hand out of his grip, shaking her head violently. "You really don't understand, do you?"

He had just looked at her in confusion.

"Let me spell it out for you loud and clear." She brought her face very close to his, taking his breath away. "I. Love. Gazilon."

He swallowed.

"I'm allowed to be in love with someone else, Fiyero. I didn't do anything wrong. There was nothing between us. Not yet, anyway. You have no right to claim me or to forbid me to see someone else."

"Nothing between us?" He kept on staring at her. "Fae… I _love _you. I have for over six months now, if not longer, and –"

She had held up one hand. "Don't make this any harder on yourself – or me – than it already is," she said softly. "I love Gaz. I love him. We're perfect together."

He scoffed. "You sound like Galinda."

That had only earned him a glare. "Fiyero, we just… we're happy. I love him. We share the same interests, he's easy to talk to, he's sweet and kind and I love him. Okay? Did it get through to your thick skull? _I love him_."

She had been exasperated, and her exasperation had only fuelled his own anger.

"It sounds to me like you're trying to convince yourself," he challenged her.

She froze in her tracks, slowly turning around, eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you say?"

"You don't love him," he said. He was bluffing, but he had hoped it would pay off. "You love _me_."

"I don't believe you." She shook her head slowly. "You must be the most arrogant, self-centred, selfish _prick _I have ever met in my life!" she snarled. "Not everything is about you, Fiyero! I don't love you and I never did, I love Gazilon! And if you can't accept that, then just… just go!" With that, she had spun around and stalked off, fuming with rage.

She hadn't spoken a single word to him since.

Not that she had spoken much to him before, either. Every time he tried to get her alone, she had made up some vague excuse. Gazilon was with her almost twenty-four hours a day. She made sure to spend some time alone with Galinda, or with Nessa; but not with him. Never with him. They barely even talked. Despite what Nessa had said, Fiyero felt like they weren't even friends anymore. She was treating him like he wasn't even there.

At first he had been suspicious of her behaviour; but then Galinda had pointed out to him logically that maybe Elphaba didn't want to be around him right now because it would be awkward.

"After all," she'd told her ex-boyfriend, "I'm really sorry I have to say this, Fifi, but you're acting like a lovesick puppy. You're acting like _Biq _when he was still in love with me. I ignored him, too, remember? Have you got any idea how annoying and awkward it is when you're trying to spend time with other people and there's a boy sitting across the table with this sad puppy-look on his face, staring at you all the time? No offense, but I can understand her."

Honestly, he could understand her, too… but he just couldn't help himself.

And now he was sitting at the Primrose Café, stirring his coffee without drinking it; pretending to be listening to Galinda and Nessarose's excited chattering, but really studying the couple across the room. Gazilon was cutting off a small piece of his vanilla cake with strawberries now, feeding it to Elphaba. She giggled and opened her mouth, her eyes never leaving Gazilon's.

Elphaba didn't giggle. She _never _giggled.

"Seriously," Fiyero said out loud. "Is she under some sort of spell or something?"

Galinda and Nessa looked up, slightly annoyed by him interrupting their conversation.

"What?" Nessa asked. "Who?"

Fiyero nodded towards Elphaba and Gazilon. "Fae."

Galinda sighed. "Fiyero, really – you're going to have to let this go."

"I can't."

"You have to." The blonde looked at him, uncharacteristically solemn for once. "Fiyero, you're only making this more difficult for yourself. Just leave her be. Please."

Now Elphaba was trying to feed Gazilon a piece of her own pie, but instead of closing his lips around the fork she offered him, he kissed her fingers. She giggled again, blushing, and leant forward over the table to kiss his lips.

"See? She never kissed _me _in public," Fiyero said unhappily.

Nessa and Galinda shared a look.

"Fiyero," Nessa said slowly. "You went on _two dates_."

"And she did kiss you in public," Galinda reminded him. "The day she left back for Munchkinland."

"I thought that was just the start of us being together," Fiyero whispered, eyes still trained on the two students at the other end of the room. "I never imagined it was going to be the end."

Nessa placed a comforting hand on his arm, but she didn't say anything. She had no idea what she could say.

* * *

It was one day in their second week of classes that Fiyero tried to confront Elphaba again.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he said as they were gathering their books after the bell rang. "Alone?"

She gave him an exasperated look, but she did turn to Gazilon. "See you at the café for lunch?"

He smiled at her. "I'll be waiting."

She returned the smile and leant up to kiss him. Then he left and she turned back to face Fiyero.

"Fae," he said. "I… I know I've been behaving… well, maybe a bit stupid… lately."

She softened and shook her head. "It's fine, Fiyero," she said. "I understand. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He took a deep breath. "I mean… you can't help it if you don't feel the same way about me, and… and I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy." He looked at her. "So I'll try to stop acting like a lovesick moron."

She smiled and leant up to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

He tried his hardest to ignore the way his heart started fluttering in his chest when he felt her lips on his cheek.

"I was just hoping we could at least be friends again," he said quietly. "I miss you."

She hesitated.

_She hesitated._

_Why in Oz was she hesitating?_

"Fiyero," she began, "I –"

"Please?" He took her hand. "Fae… you were my best friend," he said pleadingly. "I miss being around you, I miss talking to you… ever since you came back with Gazilon this summer, it feels like you aren't even there. You're shutting me out."

Her eyes narrowed and she slowly pulled her hand back. "Fiyero, I thought you just promised that you would stop this."

He was genuinely confused. "What? I'm trying to! Elphaba, I'm just asking you if we can be friends again!"

"You're not asking me," she corrected him. "You're practically begging me. I can't deal with you when you're like this, Fiyero. I will not allow you to make me feel guilty over being with Gaz when I have every right to be with him!"

His eyes widened. "No!" he cried. "That's not what I'm trying to do!"

Or was it? Was he trying to make her feel guilty for being with this new guy? If he was being perfectly honest with himself… maybe. Maybe that was what he was trying to do. If he could get her to feel guilty enough to break up with this guy, he would have a chance with her again.

He immediately felt guilty for even thinking that. She had been right before – he _was _being selfish.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She looked at him for a long time. Then she nodded.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you."

"So…" He extended his hand towards her. "Friends?"

She looked at him with something in her dark brown eyes that he couldn't quite identify. Then she shook his hand.

"Friends."

He grinned broadly at her.

"If," she said sternly, holding up one finger, "you stop glaring at Gaz as if he has committed a crime. If you want to blame someone, blame me."

He sighed. "What do you see in him?" he wanted to know.

"What's not to see in him?" she retorted. "Fiyero, you're just making this harder on yourself."

"No." Suddenly he grew agitated. How dare she stand here and tell him he was doing this to himself! "No, I'm not making this harder on myself – _you _are making this hard on me! You and your oh-so-amazing new boyfriend!"

"Don't do this," she warned him, but there was no stopping him.

"Did you ever even _consider _how I would feel about this?" he demanded, raising his voice. "Did I even cross your mind or didn't you even think of me when you started doing things with _him_? Did you care at all?"

"Of course I cared!" Elphaba shouted back at him. "I still do! But _you're _the one complicating things, Fiyero, not me! If you could just accept the fact that I'm with someone else now, at least we could just be friends again!"

"I don't want to just be friends!" he yelled back at her. "I love you! I want to be with you, I thought there was something between us! If you didn't feel the same, you should have said so! You shouldn't have led me on for three whole months!"

"That is _so _unfair!" Her eyes were flashing now. "I have _not _been leading you on! It was one kiss, Fiyero! One kiss and two dates! It didn't mean anything!"

He noticed the fact that the chairs and tables in the room started shaking, and he slowly backed away a little.

She noticed it, too, and she caught herself just in time. "I'm going to turn around and go now," she said in a low voice. "Before I get so angry with you that I throw a chair against your head."

She turned around and stomped off.

He sighed and packed his things, slowly going after her. Once outside, he blinked and squinted against the bright sunlight for a moment. Then he discovered Elphaba standing against a wall in the archway. Her arms were wrapped around Gazilon's neck and he was kissing her deeply, pressing her up against the wall. She was kissing him back, too. Fiyero almost couldn't bear to look at it.

He saw them kissing one more time before Gazilon pulled away. Elphaba smiled at him and he took her hand and kissed it, eliciting a giggle from her; then he walked away. Elphaba clutched her books to her chest, smiling after him, before she turned around and walked back into the archway.

Fiyero hadn't been trained to be a hunter for nothing. He silently but quickly followed her, ducking between students. When he finally caught up with her, he acted on impulse; he yanked open a door, grabbed Elphaba and pulled her into the room that was lying behind the door. Luckily for him, it was empty. It was a janitor's closet.

Elphaba spun around and even in the faint light he could see her chocolate brown eyes flaring. "Fiyero…"

He cut her off by pressing his lips to hers in a long, deep, searing kiss.

When they finally broke apart, they were both slightly out of breath. Elphaba was gawking at him and Fiyero cupped her face with both his hands.

"You love me," he stated. He knew he was being overconfident and a bit cocky, but he was willing to take the risk. "I know you do. You may not know it yourself yet, but I'm sure of it. And I am going to do everything I can to make you realise that. I'm going to win you back, or I'm going to die trying."

With that, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, leaving Elphaba still gaping after him.

* * *

**The next chapter is going to be Elphaba's pov... which is going to clear up a lot of things for you guys ^_^.**


	5. The green girl

**AN: This chapter will explain... not everything, but a lot. The rest will probably be explained in the next chapter.**

**Moreanswers24: That made me laugh. Hard. But that's not what's going on :P.**

**Musicgal3: ...he can sleep on the plane :P. And yes, that was a Love Is All You Need reference. I could have made it cake, or sandwiches, or some other type of food, but I purposefully chose pie just to see how many people would go 'NOOOO! EATING PIE!' You were the only one. You creepy mindreader :P.**

**Elphaba'sGirl: I swear, I _swear _I'm not making this up, but I didn't describe the couple's first kiss in my story, so I can't use that to determine the baby's gender, either :'). I'm loving this game, though. Can you come up with something else? :D**

* * *

**Chapter 5. The green girl**

"Is he still looking at us?" Elphaba whispered.

Gazilon subtly glanced at the other side of the café, where Fiyero was sitting with Nessa and Galinda. "He is."

"Feed me a piece of cake," Elphaba ordered, and he looked at her.

"El," he said. "Galinda is looking, too."

Her eyes narrowed. "_Galinda _is looking? Are you serious?" She quickly lowered her voice as not to give anything away. "Just do it, Gaz. I hate this even more than you do and you know that. You barely even _know _Galinda, but Fiyero..." She sighed.

He took her hand and squeezed it – this time not for the act, but meant as a genuinely comforting gesture.

She squeezed back. "Now do it."

He nodded and cut off a small piece of his cake, then fed it to Elphaba, who giggled. He smiled a bit sadly at her.

"You know?" he said. "You're a great actress."

She shrugged. "I've had lots of practice," she said. "I practically spent my entire life acting. Pretending to be invisible when I was around my father. Pretending that all those remarks about my skin didn't hurt me. I've done a lot of pretending in my life, Gazilon. That's not what's so hard about this. I can giggle and blush and act like I love you; it's just that…" She trailed off.

"Hey." He tilted her head up to look into her eyes. "I know."

She offered him a weak smile. "You do." She pinned a piece of her own pie onto her fork and tried to feed it to him. He kissed her fingers and she giggled again.

"You know?" she said as she leant forward to kiss him briefly on the lips. "You're not such a bad actor yourself."

He gave her a wry smile. "Yay for me."

She rolled her eyes. She looked down at their entwined fingers resting on the table and opened her mouth to ask him something, but he gave her the answer before she could even utter a sound.

"Yes," Gazilon said. "He's still looking."

Elphaba blushed. "Am I that predictable?"

He just smiled.

She played with her fork, eyes still trained on the table. "Please tell me that at least he doesn't look so sad anymore."

Gazilon cast another glance in Fiyero's direction and grimaced. "Um…"

Elphaba closed her eyes for a moment, then pushed her chair back. "Excuse me for a minute," she said. She all but fled into the girls' bathroom, locking herself in a stall and taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

_You can do this, Elphaba. You don't have a choice. If you don't do it, the consequences will be far worse._

The door opened and a female voice sounded. "Elphie?"

Elphaba bit her lip.

"Are you okay?" Galinda continued, stopping in front of the closed stall. "I saw you going in here and I thought…"

"I'm fine, Glin." Elphaba opened the door and smiled brightly at her roommate. Gazilon was right – she really was good at this acting thing. "I just needed to use the bathroom. That's all."

Galinda eyed her up and down observantly. "Are you sure?"

"Of course." Elphaba threw the blonde a glance as she washed her hands and dried them with some paper towels. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

Galinda shrugged. "I don't know… it must be hard to see Fiyero like this," she said softly.

Elphaba sighed. "I don't like it," she admitted. _Well, that was the understatement of the year. _But she couldn't afford to give away much more than that. "But he'll be fine."

Galinda smiled at her. "He will be." She linked her arm with Elphaba's as they walked back into the café together. "Lunch tomorrow?"

"I'd love to."

Galinda beamed at her and threw her arms around her friend in a big hug. "Yay! And then you can tell me all the, you know," she lowered her voice, "_details _about your relationship with Gazilon."

Elphaba groaned. "Glin…"

The blonde just winked at her and skipped off to her own place again.

Elphaba sighed as she sank back down into her seat across from Gazilon. "We're going to have to rehearse yet another story."

He looked confused. "Another one? I thought we had already covered everything…" He started summing them up. "How we met, how our relationship came to be, how I came to be at Shiz…"

"Galinda wants to know the _details_ of our relationship," Elphaba informed him, and Gazilon blanched slightly.

"Oh."

She smirked at him. "Come on," she said, standing up and tugging at his hand. "Let's take this conversation elsewhere. Your dorm room?"

He nodded and they left the café together, heading towards the boys' dormitories. Just like Fiyero, Gazilon had his own suite – and a big one at that.

Elphaba curled up in an armchair next to the fire, which Gazilon got going quickly. He then sat down on the couch across from her.

"So… what would be believable?" he asked her.

She wrinkled her nose. "Galinda knows me too well," she said. "She knows I would never… you know." She blushed.

Gazilon understood what she meant, thank Oz. "Okay, so we haven't done _that _yet." He tapped his fingers against the arm of the couch. "Anything else?"

"I'd say we stick with 'just kissing'," Elphaba decided. "Glin knows how I feel about myself, and… well, let's just say it took over six months before I finally got comfortable with her seeing me in my underwear." She made a face.

Gazilon nodded, not pressing the issue. "Okay, so just kissing."

Elphaba sighed and rose to her feet, starting to pace the room. "Gaz, I… I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," she confessed quietly.

He stood up as well. "Sweetheart –"

"Don't," she said furiously. She stopped in front of him, jabbing a finger in his face. "_Don't_ call me that," she hissed. "Not when we're alone. For Oz's sake, Gaz – just a little longer and we're going to believe in this foolish nonsense ourselves!"

"Maybe that would be for the best."

She let out a bitter laugh, turning away from him. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."

"El?"

She looked at him.

"I know none of this is real," he said. "But I like to think that at least we're friends."

She nodded. "We are, I guess."

He smiled faintly at her. "I just want you to know that even though you don't love me, and I don't love you… you can still talk to me. I'm here for you."

She gave him a smile – a genuine one. "Thanks, Gaz."

If she didn't already love Fiyero, she mused as she looked at her fake boyfriend, she might have fallen in love with Gazilon eventually. Galinda was right – he was handsome… though the blonde hadn't exactly put it that way. 'Hottie extraordinaire' was the phrase she had used, if Elphaba remembered correctly.

Anyway, he wasn't bad-looking and he wasn't mean or insensitive either. He was kind and smart and he understood the way she thought. She could have done worse. If she had to be stuck in this whole freak show with someone, she didn't mind so much that that someone was him.

But then again, she figured as she watched him, even if she actually did love him, it probably wouldn't work out, anyway. They were too much alike. She needed someone light, optimistic and happy, someone who saw the best in things – even her – to counter her own pessimism. Someone to pull her from her worrying if need be, someone to hold her back when she lost her temper, someone to cheer her up when she was feeling gloomy. She needed… she needed the one person she couldn't have.

She needed Fiyero.

* * *

One night, about a week later, Elphaba came storming towards where Gazilon was talking to some classmates of his. Without saying a word, she grabbed his arm and dragged him all the way back to his dorm room, closing the door behind them.

"This is it," she declared. "I can't do this anymore."

Gazilon just looked at her. "What happened?"

She sighed and sank down into an armchair. "I had another fight with Fiyero," she said softly. "Gaz, I… I didn't tell you this, but last week he came to talk to me. He asked me if my father set up an arranged marriage between you and me and if that was the reason for all this."

Gazilon's eyes widened. "What did you say?" he asked her anxiously.

She let out a soft, mirthless laugh. "I lied, of course," she said. "What else? I told him I just loved you and that was why we are together. I mean… I didn't _really _lie," she tried weakly. "We're not in an arranged marriage…"

Gazilon rolled his eyes. "El…"

She sighed. "I know, okay? I know. I just kept on saying to him that I loved you and that he needed to stop doing this… I said some really awful things to him, Gaz. And then… then he said…" She curled into herself, drawing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on top of them. "He said he loved me," she whispered. "He said he's loved me for over six months now."

Gazilon laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at him. "Today, when I talked to him," she said quietly, "we… we argued again. He wanted us to be friends again, and… well, basically I just made up excuses, because I can't be friends with him, Gaz. It's too painful."

He nodded, understanding.

"And then eventually I did say yes," she continued. "Because I just… I couldn't hurt him any more than I already have. And then I said he's just making this harder on himself…" She closed her eyes. "I was mean. I was really, really mean. He stood there, telling me how hard this is for him, and all I was doing was blaming him for his own pain!" She opened her eyes to look at Gazilon again. "He thinks I don't care," she said in a choked voice. "And then, I… I got… emotional. Fiyero thinks I got mad and that's why the chairs and tables started shaking, but that wasn't the reason. My magic doesn't just respond to my anger, it responds to my other emotions as well, and I was just…" She sighed.

Gazilon looked at her worriedly. "You got so emotional you lost control of your _magic_? From what I've heard, that hasn't happened in quite some time," he said, frowning.

She nodded, gaze trained on the wall. "You're right." She bit her lip. "The last time was… was the day I fell in love with Fiyero. Almost seven months ago."

Gazilon kept quiet.

"I just can't _take _this anymore, Gazilon," she said, sounding near tears. "That look on his face… and then, when I was in the hallway, he dragged me into a janitor's closet and he kissed me, and he swore to me that he was going to do everything in his power to get me back." She looked at Gazilon sadly. "I can't _lie _to him like this, Gaz."

"You have no choice," Gazilon said fiercely. "Elphaba, look at me."

She did.

"Remember what will happen if we don't keep this up?" he asked her. "If we fail to convince everyone – _everyone _– that we're happy together?"

Elphaba bit her lip.

"He's unhappy," Gazilon said softly. "I know. And I'm sorry about that. But at least he's alive."

Elphaba closed her eyes, still biting her lip. "I know," she whispered.

"That's why we're doing this," Gazilon continued. "For them. For the people we love."

She nodded, staring at the floor.

He squeezed her shoulder. "Do you want me to walk you back to your dorm room?" he asked her.

She looked at him a bit shyly. "Can I… stay here?" she asked him hesitantly. "I mean… Galinda is having a sleepover in our dorm tonight, so I told her I might stay over with you or with Nessa… and I just don't think I can face her right now and lie to her face."

Gazilon nodded. "Of course. I'll take the couch, don't worry," he assured her, walking over to his closet to grab himself a blanket.

She waited until she was almost sure that he had fallen asleep; only then did she allow the tears to come. She buried her face in one of the pillows and cried herself to sleep.

Gazilon, still awake, listened, feeling torn.

* * *

After that, it only got worse.

Both Gazilon and Elphaba put up a convincing act. They kept going, kissing and laughing and sharing looks and smiles, holding hands. All of Shiz was convinced that they were in love… except for a certain Vinkun prince.

Fiyero was there. All the time. When Elphaba was in class, she could feel his eyes on her. When she was at the Primrose Café with Gazilon, she could see him from the corner of her eyes, watching them. Even when he wasn't actually there, she thought he was. She saw him behind every corner and in every shadow. Even in her dreams he was haunting her.

One night she had a particularly vivid dream. She dreamt that she and Fiyero were together and that Gazilon and Galinda were dating as well, and they were all happy. It was a good dream… right up until the point where men with rifles suddenly jumped out of the trees and started shooting at them. The next thing she knew, there was an explosion and she was knocked to the ground. When the smoke finally cleared and she shakily rose to her feet, all she could see was a wounded Gazilon, holding Galinda's dead body in his arms as he cried; and Fiyero. He was covered in blood and he wasn't moving; and even without moving closer or checking his pulse, she knew that he was dead.

Her own agonised scream woke her up and she shot up in her bed, shaking and breathing hard. She was sticky with cold sweat and her heart was thundering in her chest.

"Elphie?" Galinda's worried voice sounded from the other side of the room. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Elphaba said faintly, taking deep breaths and rubbing her forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment. "Just a nightmare."

"Oh." Galinda sat up and lit a candle on her bedside, looking at her friend in concern. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Elphaba shook her head. "Not really. It was just a nightmare, Glin," she said, though inwardly, she was happy to see her friend alive and well after that horrible dream. "You can go back to sleep, I'm just going to find another nightgown. This one's soaked."

Galinda made a face. "With sweat? Ew."

Elphaba couldn't help but smirk at that.

She quickly moved out of her bed and into the bathroom, stashing her nightgown in the laundry basket and freshening up a little before putting on a new one. She splashed some cold water in her face and stared at her mirror image for a few moments.

_This is why you're doing this,_ she reminded herself. _This is why you can't be with Fiyero. You have to remember that. If you drop the façade, if you slip up, if you listen to your heart instead of your head, your nightmare might become reality. And do you want that?_

No. No, of course she didn't want that. Because there was only one thing in the world that was worse than seeing Fiyero unhappy; and that was seeing him either wounded or dead.

Taking a deep breath, she crawled back into her bed and tried to fall back asleep.

* * *

**Even though it's not completely explained yet... Elizabeth, I think I dropped enough hints so that you now realise that you were right with your earlier predictions, didn't I? People, this is why Elizabeth and I decided that we must be long-lost twins. SHE'S IN MY HEAD. SHE READS MY MIND. Elizabeth, you're creepy. But I wuv you.**


	6. The reason

**AN: New chappie for you!**

**Musicgal3... I'm just going to say that you're the creepiest person in existence. Didn't I warn you before to get out of my head? SO WHY ARE YOU STILL IN THERE? Seriously, you should start a career as a psychic.**

**Elphaba'sGirl: The story kind of starts when the couple are already together and the girl is already pregnant, so none of the questions about where/when the baby was conceived/the first kiss was/the couple got together can be answered :3. I'm really loving this game, so what's next? :D**

* * *

**Chapter 6. The reason**

Another week, four more magical outbursts and two visits to Madame Morrible's office later, Gazilon just couldn't stand by and watch any longer.

Fiyero was trying his hardest to get Elphaba's attention, which only resulted in her turning to Gazilon even more often. When Fiyero tried to corner her in a hallway, she would drag Gazilon into a niche and kiss him until the Vinkun prince had passed by.

"El," Gazilon tried one time, but she had shushed him.

"Just kiss me," she had whispered, meanwhile peering over his shoulder to see if Fiyero had moved along.

When he was gone, Elphaba had tried to move out of the niche again, but Gazilon had kept her there.

"Elphaba," he said softly.

Her dark eyes flashed up to his for a moment before she looked away again. "Don't do this," she warned him, looking over his shoulder instead of at his face. "You were right before. I want to keep him safe and in order for me to do that, I have to hurt him. And I know it isn't fair, but I all of all people should know by now that life never is."

With that, she had hurried away from him.

That had been a few days ago. Every time Fiyero managed to get her to talk to him, she ended up either running away or losing control of her magic. One time the prince had succeeded in pulling her into an empty classroom and kissing her again and she had slapped him. She felt horrible about that, but she _had _to. She was finding it more and more difficult to keep this all up – especially because of the look in Fiyero's eyes every time he saw her with Gazilon. A look that was enough to break her heart… but she couldn't give up. Not without endangering him and she could not and would not do that.

He looked so sad. So hurt. As if she had done something horrible to him. And she _was _doing something horrible to him. After all, he didn't know that she was doing this for his own good. To keep him safe. He didn't know how badly it hurt her that she had to do this. He had no way of knowing that she spent ten minutes in the girls' bathroom bawling her eyes out after every conversation she had with him. He didn't know that she cried herself to sleep every night, waiting to Galinda to fall asleep first so that the blonde wouldn't suspect anything. It almost physically hurt her that she had to do this to him, but he had no way of knowing that.

It was one day when they were in Gazilon's room doing homework together that he suddenly put down his pencil and declared, "This has to stop."

She blinked a few times, then frowned and peered at him over her glasses. "What does?"

"You," he said. "You and Fiyero."

Her eyes widened. "Am I being too obvious?" She sounded panicky. "Gaz, I'm sorry – I'll try harder, I promise. I'll avoid him, I won't look at him anymore, but… but if I'm not doing this right, you have to tell me. I can't risk it, Gaz, I just can't –"

"That's not what I mean," he interrupted her gently. "El, you're amazing at this. Really. You're a great actress. Everyone believes you."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Really? Because if someone notices…"

"No-one will notice." He squeezed her arm. "But I just can't watch this any longer. El, I think you should tell him."

She gaped at her fake boyfriend. "Gazilon," she said when she found her voice again. "Are you completely out of your mind?!"

He shook his head. "Elphaba, those magical outbursts have been giving you away," he said. "I never really realised how deep you and Fiyero went, but you and him… it's just sad to look at. Really. You put up a great show for everyone else; but when we're alone, I can see it in your eyes. I see it in his, too. It's wrong. You two shouldn't be apart."

"And he shouldn't be dead," snapped Elphaba. "I don't have a choice, Gazilon."

"We can still keep up the act," he said quietly. "It would be a secret. To the outside world, you'd still be with me; but in private, you two could be together."

She was still staring at him as if he had gone crazy.

"El, you're my friend," he said. "I can't stand seeing you like this. To be perfectly honest, it's the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life. You two should be together. Or if that's not possible, at least he needs to hear the truth."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times.

"If you don't tell him, I will," Gazilon threatened, and she caved.

"Okay," she whispered, looking down. "I'll tell him."

* * *

When Elphaba asked Fiyero the next day if he could come to Gazilon's room that night, his first reaction was to refuse.

"You're asking me to come to your boyfriend's room?" he demanded. "What, so that he can beat me up for pining after his girlfriend?"

Elphaba just sighed. "No," she said softly. "Of course not. I just… I need to talk to you. In private."

"We can go to my room," he said, but she shook her head.

"What if people notice?" she asked him logically. "I have to keep up appearances, Fiyero. I'll explain everything, just… just come to Gazilon's dorm room tonight."

He hesitated.

"Please?" she added.

He sighed, but gave in upon seeing the pleading look on her face. He nodded.

"Okay," he said. "I'll be there."

He thought about it the rest of the day, unable to concentrate on anything else. What would she want to talk to him about? Part of him couldn't help but fear that she was going to punch him, or hex him, or do something else to assure that he would stay out of her way from now on; but she had looked so serious, so… sad. He felt a tiny sliver of hope, but he didn't dare listen to that feeling. After all, if she wanted him back, why in Oz would she want to meet him in her boyfriend's room?

When he knocked on the door that night after dinner and heard Gazilon call, "Come in!" he was prepared for anything. Or so he thought.

What he was _not _prepared for was the sight that greeted him.

Elphaba was curled up in the middle of the bed, clutching a pillow to her chest, sobbing. And then Fiyero noticed that Gazilon was sitting behind her, rubbing circles on her back and stroking her arm in an attempt to comfort her, and Fiyero's eyes narrowed.

"What did you do to her?!" he demanded angrily, stepping forward.

Gazilon looked genuinely shocked. "Me? Fiyero, no, you misunderstand," he said hastily, quickly backing away from Elphaba, because the Vinkun prince looked like he was about to commit a murder.

"Fiyero, no!" Elphaba cried from the bed, sitting up. She wiped her nose with her sleeve, still pressing the pillow to her chest. "It's not Gazilon's fault," she said hoarsely. "He didn't do anything wrong."

Fiyero, however, was still glowering at the other boy; and Gazilon gulped.

"I think I'll just go," he said, slowly making his way over to the door. "Give you guys some privacy… I'll be back later."

Elphaba smiled tiredly at him. "Thanks, Gaz."

He returned the smile. "Good luck." Then he left.

Elphaba buried her face in her hands again, unable to look at Fiyero. He sat down on the edge of the bed a bit tentatively, reaching out to rub a tense spot between her shoulder blades. "Fae?"

She surprised him by turning towards him and burying her face in his chest, still crying, fingers grasping his shirt.

His arms immediately went around her, holding her close as she sobbed into his shirt, soaking it with her tears. He held her until she calmed down a little, but she didn't let go of him.

"Fae?" he whispered, stroking her hair. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything." She looked up at him. "In fact, if it weren't for him, you wouldn't even be here right now," she said softly. Her tears started falling again. "I wanted to tell you," she said, her voice choked. "But I couldn't."

"Why not?" He gently wiped away her tears. "Elphaba, what's going on?"

She took a deep, shuddering breath, then let out a mirthless laugh. "I don't even know where to start."

She brought her hand up to his face. She hasn't been this close to him since they said goodbye before the summer… not counting the times he had kidnapped her into an empty room and kissed her, or the time she had slapped him.

She touched the spot on his cheek that was still a bit red from where her hand had hit him a few days prior. "I'm so sorry about that," she whispered, new tears stinging her eyes.

"It's okay," he whispered back. He couldn't even describe how good it felt to be together with her like this again – without either of them yelling or forcing the other into a kiss.

"Yero?" she asked him in a small voice.

He stroked her cheek. "Yeah?"

She closed her eyes for a moment. Then she cupped his face with one hand and leant up to kiss him.

He stopped her.

He wasn't even sure why. It almost happened automatically, and when he saw the hurt and crestfallen look on her face, he regretted it instantly.

But he had feelings, too. And he needed an explanation first.

"Fae," he said in a strangled voice. "I love you. All you've done is push me away, and it's killing me to turn you down right now, but I need a reason first. Why did you do it? What in Oz is going on?"

She bit her lip and looked down.

"I'll tell you," she said. "But you have to promise me that you will never, _never _tell anyone else about it. People's lives are depending on this."

He was a bit stunned to hear that it was something that important, but he nodded nonetheless. "I swear. I won't say a word."

She heaved a shuddering sigh. "A few weeks into summer vacation," she began softly, "my father noticed that I'd been getting a lot of mail from the Vinkus. I didn't know this at first, but… but he opened some of the letters you sent me."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "When he realised what was going on… he got mad. He started screaming at me that I had to break up with you, that I could never see you again, if I even realised what I was doing to his reputation… Gaz was already with us by then – what I told everyone about him and his parents was true. He travelled a lot, but his parents actually came to see my father for a reason."

She looked up at him through her thick, dark eyelashes. "You know about the attacks from the Glikkus, right?" she asked him.

He nodded, and she sighed.

"Father heard that the terrorists have been targeting leaders now," she said quietly. "He grew worried and he contacted some people he knew in the Glikkus, asking them to make certain arrangements between the Glikkus and Munchkinland to keep himself and Nessa out of danger. They agreed, and they sent Gazilon's parents to do this."

"I was right, wasn't I?" Fiyero asked her, stunned. "When I asked you about the arranged marriage thing."

"It's not a marriage." She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "But yes, our parents did arrange for us to be together. My father… he ordered me to break up with you and he told me that from now on, I would be dating Gazilon. After graduation, we would be married, and that would be it. It's his way of assuring his and Nessa's safety. The Glikkun people agreed to that; but they have spies everywhere, Fiyero. This terrorist group is bigger and more powerful than they have shown up until this point. They're everywhere."

He reached out to take her hand in his, softly rubbing the back of it with his thumb. She smiled softly, amazed at the tingling feeling that rushed all through her body at even that small, simple touch.

"That's not all, though," she whispered, looking up at Fiyero again. "Yero, they… they were planning on targeting Shiz."

Fiyero drew in his breath with a sharp hiss.

"They agreed not to do it," she said, "but only if the bond between the Glikkus and Munchkinland remains intact. They wanted Munchkinland as an ally and Father agreed, but he had one condition and that was that they would not target Shiz – purely because Nessa goes there and she has a lot of friends at Shiz, too. She would be devastated if they were all killed. So the Glikkuns agreed, but they warned Father that the moment this alliance would falter, they would go through with it."

She took a deep breath. "I'm the alliance," she said. "Me and Gazilon. Right now we're the only thing binding the Glikkus and Munchkinland; and both my father and Gazilon's parents have made it very clear to us that if we fail to convince everyone – _everyone_ - that we're together, thus publicly showing off the bondage between our provinces, the consequences would be horrible. The Glikkus would launch an attack on Shiz, and… and Father threatened me personally that if I failed, he would come here himself and singlehandedly kill you and everyone else I care about."

Fiyero was absolutely shocked. He had mentally prepared himself for many possible explanations for everything that had been going on; but he had never imagined that it would be so huge.

When she met his eyes again, her own were filled with tears. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry I had to hurt you like that. Yero… please believe me when I say that it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. But I just had to. Don't you see? I… I couldn't let anything happen to you. I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt, or… or worse… because of me. I love you. I love you, and that's why I had to push you away."

And finally, it all made sense.

"Oh, Fae…" He wrapped her in his arms, tears in his own eyes as well now. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'm sorry that this had to happen to you, and I'm sorry for being such a jerk. I only made this all harder on you."

"No!" She shook her head fervently. "Yero, you… you didn't know. You _couldn't _know. And I'm so sorry for… for treating you the way I did…"

"I know." He kissed her temple. "I understand now. I don't blame you, of course I don't."

He felt her heave a shuddering, but relieved sigh. "Thank you."

"What about Gazilon?" he asked, and she let out a soft laugh.

"Gazilon is actually swooning over Galinda," she said as she sat up a little, looking at him. "They're getting along really well – you know, as friends – and he really, really likes her, but of course he can't do anything about it. He's really not that bad, Yero. He can't help this situation any more than I can, but he tries to at least be a good friend to me to make this less horrible. We're just… just friends. We're trying to pull each other through this, but that's all. I don't love him and I never will." She touched his cheek lightly. "The only one I love is you."

And then he _did _kiss her. He wrapped his one arm around her waist, splaying his fingers against her back, while the other one tangled in her long, silky hair; and he leant forward and pressed his lips against hers.

She responded immediately and he deepened the kiss, pulling her even closer until she was flush against him. He had missed this so much. He had missed _her _so much.

"Don't shut me out again," he whispered when they broke apart and she rested his forehead against his. "I understand how hard this must be for you, and I understand that we might not be able to be together, but… but at least talk to me. I can't handle you shutting me out, Fae. Please."

She trailed random patterns on his chest, gaze fixed on her fingers before raising it to meet his again.

"Okay," she said softly. "I promise."


	7. The secret

**AN: It's funny how some of you are like, 'Yay, she told him! Fiyeraba!' and others are like, 'Nooo, this is horrendible! Fix this!'. I get it, though. And it will be... fixed... sort of... okay not really, but it's not going to stay like this forever.**

**Elphaba'sGirl: YES, finally one that is actually usable on my couple! I'll miss our girl/boy game, though. According to this one, the baby will be a boy. Elizabeth and Xanne-Li will be happy... though I'm going to give it some more thought before making a definite decision.**

**Musicgal3: You. Elizabeth. If you're trapped in my mind, you sit down calmly and you don't move, talk, listen or read my mind. Close your eyes and ears right now! I love your fistpumps, by the way. And yes, I confuse Frozen and Wicked myself sometimes these days :'). Also, I have to finish it. You hope he proves you wrong? I doubt he will!**

**This chapter is for Caricature of a Witch, because she's caught up on all my stories and I'm glad to have her back reading and reviewing again :).**

* * *

**Chapter 7. The secret**

Gazilon stared at her as if she had sorely disappointed him.

"You sent him away," he echoed flatly.

She shrugged.

"Are you serious?" he wanted to know.

"What else was I supposed to do?" Elphaba demanded irritably.

Gazilon quirked an eyebrow. "How about… talking about what's going to happen next?" he suggested slowly, as if he was talking to a toddler. "I don't know, agree on when you'll see each other again?"

"Tomorrow in class," she said.

He raised his other eyebrow. "Elphaba, I know that you know what I'm talking about," he said sternly. "You're not as dense as you're pretending to be right now. Spit it out."

She sighed and flopped back onto the bed. "Nothing," she declared. "Nothing is going to happen next, okay? He knows. He promised me he'd keep his distance in the romantic sense and in return I promised him we'd be friends again. That's it."

"That's it," he repeated, flabbergasted. "Friends."

"Are you just going to repeat everything I say?" she growled. She grabbed the blankets and pulled them over her head.

"Elphaba," he said, finally having enough of it. "Are you completely out of your mind?"

She poked her head out from underneath the blankets to glare at him.

"Look," she said, pushing the blankets off her again. She sat up to be able to look him in the eye. "He knows now. He understands why we can't be together. That's all. There's not going to be a secret relationship, Gaz. I can't take that risk."

"It seems to me that _he _is more than willing to take that risk," Gazilon pointed out.

"It's not just about him!" snapped Elphaba. "This is about Nessa, too, and about Galinda… I can't be that selfish, Gazilon! If anyone finds out –"

"Then we'll make sure no-one finds out!" He sat down on the edge of the bed to look at her. "El, I'll help you. I promise. But I don't want to sit here and watch you doing this to yourself."

She frowned. "I'm not –"

"Yes, you are, and you know it. You're miserable without him and he's the same without you. Elphaba…" He took her hand in his. "We're in this together," he said. "And it sucks. For both of us. But if this is the chance we get to make sure that at least one of us can still be happy, then I'm not going to let you screw it up."

She stared at him for a long time.

"You know what?" she said after a while.

He cocked his head a little to the side. "What?"

"You're like the big brother I never wanted."

He chuckled and pulled her off the bed, pushing her in the direction of the door. "Go. As long as you're careful, I know you can pull this off, El. Good luck."

She sighed. "Thanks." With that, she disappeared through the door.

* * *

On her way to Fiyero, she ran into Nessa.

"Hi, Fabala," she greeted her sister, wheeling up to her. "How have you been?"

Elphaba shrugged a bit stiffly. "Fine."

Nessa sighed. "Look, Fabala," she said gently, "I know it hurts, but –"

"No, you don't," Elphaba cut her off sharply. "You don't know. Not at all. You have no idea."

"Fair enough," the younger girl conceded. "But it's for the best."

Elphaba glared at her.

"What?" Nessarose defended herself. "It is! You know that as well as I do, Fabala!"

"For the best," Elphaba echoed. "For who, exactly?"

Nessa opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again.

Elphaba snorted softly. "Exactly."

"Elphaba…"

"I know I have to do this, Nessa," Elphaba said, kneeling down in front of her sister to be able to look into her eyes. "I know. Believe me, I do. And I _will _do it. You have my word. But don't _ever _try to tell me again that it's for the best, because it's not. How would you feel if Father broke you and Boq up and set you up with some other boy you don't even know?"

"He… he would never do that," said Nessa quietly.

"Exactly." Elphaba rose again. "I'm not trying to be the victim here, Nessa. I'll do what I have to do, no matter what. But I don't want you sitting here telling me that it's for the best and that you know how I feel, because both of those things are far from the truth and you know it." With that, she turned around and walked away from her sister… only to bump into Fiyero.

She sighed. "Hey. I was looking for you." She moved to take his hand, then changed her mind and took his arm instead, figuring that looked less intimate. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

"Nessa knows," he said as they walked across campus together. "Doesn't she?"

"She does," Elphaba admitted. "She's my sister. She was there over the summer, when… when everything happened."

Fiyero frowned. "And there she was, giving me all that crap about you being so in love with Gazilon and that I should just accept it and get over it," he muttered angrily. "And all along, she knew. Does she not care about you being happy?"

"She cares more about people being alive," Elphaba pointed out to him, which he had no answer to.

"So… why did you come to find me?" he asked her.

She looked at him, bit her lip, then glanced around her. Maybe a walk wasn't such a good idea; she needed to talk to him in private.

She opened a door on her right and glanced inside. "Empty classroom," she said, before pulling Fiyero in with her, making sure they weren't seen by anyone.

She closed the door behind them and turned around to face Fiyero again.

"It was Gazilon's idea, actually," she said. "For me to talk to you."

Fiyero wasn't really sure what to say. "Oh. What about?"

She lowered her eyes and shuffled back and forth a little. "About…" She swallowed. "He wants us to have a secret relationship."

Fiyero stared at her.

Elphaba shrugged. "He says he can't stand to look at us and that I was an idiot for letting you go just now," she said softly. "And I… I guess he was right. I mean, I'm scared – terrified, actually – but… but I think Gaz is right. I think we can pull this off without anyone knowing."

Fiyero chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "You know?"

She looked up at him. "What?"

"That Gazilon guy is making it really, really hard for me to keep on hating him," he admitted a bit sheepishly.

Elphaba laughed softly. "Then stop hating him," she said. "He has done nothing wrong, Yero. On the contrary. If it weren't for him, you would still be in the dark about what was going on."

Fiyero looked at her, his sapphire blue eyes soft. "Fae," he said. "If you don't want to do this, I understand. I mean… It's killing me not to be able to be with you, but I don't want to endanger you. Or anyone else. I don't care about myself, but you've told me that this isn't just about you and me – it's about your other friends, everyone else at Shiz. It's about Nessa, Boq, Galinda… I'm just saying that I would understand it if you can't do this, and I won't push you."

"I know." She took a deep breath. "But… but what Gazilon said… it's true. It's been horrible without you, Yero. I love you. I want to be with you. And if we can keep it a secret…"

Before she had even finished speaking, Fiyero had already wrapped his arms around her waist and was leaning down to kiss her. She happily complied, closing her eyes as she melted into the kiss; and in that moment she just knew that this was the right thing to do. Maybe it was selfish; maybe it was dangerous… but she just couldn't live without him.

"I love you, Yero," she whispered when they broke apart for a moment and he looked down into her eyes.

He smiled and tenderly tucked a stray strand of ebony hair behind her ear. "I love you more."

She rolled her eyes. "Fiyero, I'm not going to play that game with you."

He pouted playfully. "You don't love me most?"

She grumbled. "Yes, I do. I love you most. Happy now?"

He grinned at her. "I love you more than most."

She punched his arm.

* * *

Over the course of the next few weeks, Elphaba discovered - much to her surprise - that this new arrangement actually seemed to work out quite well.

It was proving to be quite difficult to schedule in her time with Fiyero, that much was true. Between her classes, studying, dates with Gazilon and time she spent with Galinda or Nessa, or with their entire group, she didn't have much time left; not to mention that they had to be careful not to be seen in public.

But somehow, they managed to make it work. Sometimes Fiyero would 'kidnap' her between classes, or when they had some time off together. He would sneak into her dorm room when Galinda wasn't there, or she would sneak into his; and they would spend precious time together, laughing and talking and kissing, sometimes reading together or stalling out an indoor picnic. Gazilon offered his services by pretending to take Elphaba out to Shiz – the town – for a date, while really, he just brought her to a small cabin in the woods they had discovered one day. Fiyero would meet them both there, often with a large basket filled with food, allowing them to have a romantic dinner together even though they couldn't go out in public. Gazilon, meanwhile, just went into town and strolled around for a few hours, getting some dinner himself or hanging out at a bar before going back to the cabin to pick Elphaba up again, after which he would drop her off at her dorm room as if they had been on a date together. Galinda was absolutely infatuated with the guy.

"Elphie," she squealed practically every time he dropped her off. "I swear to you, he's the sweetest, handsomest, cutest, kindest, smartest, most amazifying person I've _ever _known in my entire life! If it weren't for the fact that you're my best friend and you're so happy with him, I would totally steal him away from you!"

It was those moments, mostly, when Galinda would be swooning over Gazilon and Elphaba and how cute they were together – which, really, she did at least three times a day – that Elphaba found it hard to go on with it. She hated lying to her best friend. She wished Galinda could just date Gazilon and she could date Fiyero – that way, everyone would be happy. But she was forced to keep her mouth shut and smile and nod, pretending to be hopelessly in love with her fake boyfriend.

There was only one thing harder than hearing Galinda talking like that… and that was watching Fiyero when he was watching her and Gazilon together.

"Yero," she said to him every time they were alone together, slipping her arms around his neck and looking into his sapphire blue eyes. "It's all fake. It's just a show we put on, I swear. I don't have any romantic feelings for him whatsoever. He's a friend. That's all. You know that, don't you? I love you, and only you."

"I know," he said. He kissed her softly. "But I don't like sharing."

She sighed and leant into his chest. "Believe me," she muttered. "Neither do I."

Fiyero, for his part, had to restrain himself every time he watched Gazilon and Elphaba being all 'smushy and romantic together', as Galinda always put it. He hated having to watch her as she kissed another boy, allowed him to feed her bits of food, held his hand during or outside of class. All his instincts screamed at him to just jump to his feet and punch Gazilon in the face for stealing _his _Elphaba, but he kept himself under control. Gazilon had done nothing wrong and Elphaba was in love with _him_, Fiyero, not with the guy she kept on cuddling with in public.

"I admire you," Gazilon said to him one day as they were all hanging out in the park together. Galinda and Nessa were sitting on a blanket a few metres away, chatting about boys and fashion and make-up as they both fussed over Elphaba's hair. The green girl herself was just reading a book as her best friend and sister styled her long, raven hair, decorating it with wildflowers. Boq, as always, was hovering nearby – though it wasn't clear to anyone whether he was so close to the girls because of Nessa or because of Galinda.

Fiyero blinked at the boy sitting next to him, taken by surprise. "What?"

Gazilon shrugged. "The way you deal with this whole situation," he elaborated. "I know how much you love Elphaba. I can see it in your eyes. And I know how much she loves you – she quite literally glows every time you two are around one another."

Fiyero cocked his head a little to the side as he studied Elphaba, trying to see her through Gazilon's eyes. The young witch, sensing that she was being stared at, looked up from her book for a moment and caught his gaze. She gave him a small, but loving smile before lowering her gaze back to the pages in front of her.

Fiyero couldn't help but smile as well. "She does, doesn't she?"

Gazilon chuckled. "Yeah. And… you know… if it were me, I don't know if I could handle it as well as you do," he admitted. "Watching the girl I love being with another guy, not being able to be together in public…"

"It's not as hard as it sounds." Fiyero shifted, pulling his legs underneath him. "I mean… if I had a choice, I would shout it out at the top of my lungs. I love her, and I want everyone to know that." He looked at Elphaba again. "But I can't. Just like we can't do anything even remotely intimate in public, just like I can't tell anyone, anyone at all, about our relationship. And that's not exactly the way I would have preferred it to be… but the truth is that I can't say I really mind, either. It's a necessity. I understand. And I'm so grateful just to be with her in any way at all."

And that was true. No matter how much it hurt him to see her with Gazilon, no matter how hard he found it sometimes to keep his mouth shut about their relationship, he knew he could keep doing this forever. For her. Because he loved her. And despite everything, all the problems and all the pain… they were happy.

And then the letter came.

* * *

**I don't think it's much of a surprise what the next chapter will be called, is it? :P**


	8. The letter

**AN: Kudos to PrincessKadenceOfMusic. Yes, the title is 'The letter' :P.**

**Musicgal3: No, Elizabeth, you can't do anything :P. And yes, you should be worried.**

**Just a warning: this story is going to get angsty. Like, major character death - angsty. Not Fiyero or Elphaba, I can promise you that much... but no-one else is safe. *ominous music* *dun dun dunnnn...* *smirk***

**This chapter, though, is mostly fluff. Sad fluff, I guess, but still fluff.**

* * *

**Chapter 8. The letter**

It arrived in the middle of the afternoon one Friday after classes.

The weekend had begun and Elphaba, Galinda, Nessarose, Boq, Fiyero and Gazilon were having tea at the Primrose Café, lounging on the couches and pillows in their usual corner. Elphaba was, of course, sitting next to Gazilon, with their fingers entwined and her head on his shoulder every now and then; which caused Galinda, who was sitting across from her roommate, to squeal and/or 'aww' loudly every time she caught sight of it. Nessa, who was sitting in between Galinda and Boq, kept giving her sister approving glances; while Boq and Gazilon were caught up in a heated discussion about Munchkin law and farmer's taxes and how much it differed from the other provinces.

Fiyero, meanwhile, had made himself comfortable on a pile of pillows next to the couch Elphaba and Gazilon were sitting on, practically at Elphaba's feet - which was proving to be amazing as well as infuriating. They were too careful to exchange secret glances in a public place such as this one; but Elphaba couldn't help it that every time she leant forward to pick her cup of tea up from the table, her fingers brushed Fiyero's shoulder. Or that every time he leant back he was actually leaning against her legs and she had to resist the urge to run her fingers through his hair. She loved being so close to him, even though they couldn't do anything in public; but she hated it at the same time, because it was driving her crazy and she felt like she was blushing all the time. She hoped people would think that to be because of Gazilon.

Suddenly Gazilon gently grabbed her chin and turned her head towards him, then pressed his lips to hers in a long kiss. She could almost _feel _Fiyero stiffening next to her.

"What was that for?" she whispered a bit irritably once they broke apart.

"To give you an excuse for the fact that your face looks like a tomato," he muttered in her ear. He was smiling, giving the others the impression that he was whispering something sweet into her ear.

The fact that Elphaba's face flushed an even brighter red at his words only contributed to that idea.

"I'm green," she hissed, smiling as well in an attempt to fool anyone who was looking. "I couldn't turn the colour of a tomato to save my life."

"Trust me," Gazilon said with a grin. "You just pulled it off."

She scowled at him and shoved him, making him laugh. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, planting a kiss on the top of her head as he whispered in her ear, "Just be a little more careful, okay? I'll gladly help you, you know that, but it would be easier if you two would just save this for when you're alone." He kissed her again briefly. "Date tonight?" he asked her casually, his eyes flicking towards Fiyero for a moment.

She smiled, knowing what he meant, and she nodded. "I'd love to," she said softly. "Thank you."

Galinda started squealing again. "Aww, Elphie, are you _thanking _him for taking you on a date? That's so incredibly sweet!"

_No, _Elphaba corrected her silently, _I'm thanking him for going through all this trouble in order for me to have some alone time with the guy I _really _love. _But of course she didn't say that out loud.

Fiyero cast a quick glance in their direction, which Elphaba answered with a smile. He got the message and grinned at her before turning around again.

Just then, one of the waiters approached them, carrying something.

"Excuse me?" he asked when he reached the friend group. "I'm looking for Prince Fiyero Tiggular?"

"That's me," Fiyero said, looking confused.

The waiter handed him an envelope. "This just came in for you," he said. "A servant brought it to me – he couldn't stay to give it to you himself, he seemed to be in a hurry. He looked quite panicked, actually."

Chills ran down Fiyero's spine as he accepted the envelope. "Thank you," he said, his voice sounding a bit strangled.

He turned the envelope around in his hands. "It's from the Vinkus," he mused softly, more to himself than to the others. "But it's not from my parents – it doesn't have the royal seal." He frowned. "It looks official, though. Why –"

"Just open it!" Galinda said impatiently.

Boq chuckled. Elphaba rolled her eyes.

Fiyero took a deep breath and opened the envelope, pulling out the letter that was inside. His eyes flew over the first words, taking them in quickly. He frowned, confused and worried.

"It's from General Waldin," he said, looking up. Everyone present could see the worry in his eyes. "Why would General Waldin send me a letter?"

"Isn't he second in command?" Elphaba, who knew a bit about the Vinkun government system, asked him softly.

He nodded, still looking dazed. "My father is first in command," he said. "He's the king. But why… why would the general write to me?" He bit his lip. "Unless something… something happened to my father…"

"Fifi," Galinda said sternly. "Don't draw premature conclusions. Just read the Oz-damned letter."

"Galinda!" Nessa was clearly shocked to hear such language from her friend, but no-one paid attention to the girl in the wheelchair. All eyes were on Fiyero as he nodded faintly, then unfolded the letter and started reading it.

Everyone was watching him anxiously as his eyes widened and he blanched visibly upon reading the message that was in the letter.

Elphaba laid her hand on his shoulder. "Yero?" she asked softly. "What is it?"

"Are you alright?" Nessa chimed in, eyeing the prince worriedly. "Did something happen?"

"It's…" Fiyero swallowed, but the lump in his throat didn't disappear. "I… I need some air," he choked out, before rising to his feet and all but fleeing the café.

The others looked at one another, puzzled.

"Bad news, I take it," Boq said redundantly.

No-one responded.

Elphaba was staring at the door, longing to run after him right now, but not sure if she could.

"El?"

She looked at Gazilon.

He smiled and squeezed her hand. "You can go after him, sweetheart," he said, keeping up the act at the same time as letting her know that it was okay. "You're his friend. He needs you right now."

She nodded, dazed, and flashed him a small but grateful smile before hurrying after Fiyero.

She found him in the alley behind the café, sitting on the ground with his back against the rough, stone wall and his face buried in his hands.

She slid down next to him and put one hand on his arm. "Yero?"

He glanced at her once; then he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck as he started crying.

She held him, rubbing soothing circles on his back. She still had no idea what was going on or what had been in the letter, but he was shaking with sobs and the mere sight broke her heart.

"It's okay," she whispered, feeling him clinging to her like a small child clinging to its mother. "Ssh, it's okay, Yero… calm down. I'm here for you, I promise." She pulled away slightly, wiping his tears away with her thumbs. "I love you," she said, softly enough so that only he could hear. "Please tell me what's wrong."

He choked on another sob. The letter was stained with tears by now and he crumpled it in his fist, news tears spilling over.

"There… there's been an attack," he choked out. "The Glikkun people… on my family…"

Elphaba suddenly felt icy cold. "Oh, Yero…" she whispered, tears filling her own eyes upon seeing him like this. "I'm so sorry."

He sniffled and pulled away, wiping his tears away. She sat on her knees, looking at him.

"Are they…"

"I don't know," he said hoarsely. "There… there was an explosion. The entire castle caved in…" He shuddered. "Eleven deaths so far." He blinked back more tears. "Llor, our cook, is dead… he always treated me like his son. He taught me how to bake." He sniffled. "And Raina, my mother's favourite maid… along with seven other staff members I grew up with. All gone…" He shook his head, as if he couldn't believe it.

"They found my Mum," he said, his voice sounding strange to his own ears. "She… she's still alive, but the letter doesn't say what condition she's in. The found my father, too, but… they don't think he's going to make it."

Elphaba hugged him. He buried his face in her hair.

"Some got out alive," he said. His voice was muffled by Elphaba's hair, but she heard him anyway. "Eight more staff members, though they're probably all hurt… and then there's three people still missing. Two more staff members and my little sister. The general writes that he's 'sorry for my loss'. I guess he presumes them dead… I mean, how long can a person survive under a pile of rubble that used to be an enormous castle?"

"There's still hope," Elphaba insisted. "Maybe they'll find them alive."

Fiyero shrugged listlessly, clearly not believing her. "Maybe."

She held him tightly.

* * *

When there came a knock on the door that night, Elphaba opened it to reveal Gazilon.

"You should be careful with that," he warned her. "If I had been someone else, it would have led to a lot of questions as to what you are doing in Fiyero's dorm room."

She bit her lip. "Sorry. I wasn't really thinking."

He gave her a small smile. "I understand."

She looked over her shoulder to where Fiyero had fallen asleep on his bed. "I don't really want to leave him right now," she confessed, looking back at Gazilon worriedly. "But…"

"You can stay with him," he assured her. "That's why I came, actually. To tell you that I told Galinda you'd be staying over at my place tonight." He shrugged. "I figured you'd want to stay with Fiyero tonight. Galinda is going to pester you tomorrow to get you to tell her the 'details' of you sleeping in my room, but…"

On an impulse, she leant up and kissed his cheek. "I love you," she said. "And that's the first time I said it that I actually mean it, too."

"You know? The fact that you're saying you love me, just because I made sure you could stay with another guy tonight, kind of ruins the sentiment," he teased her lightly.

She made a face at him. "Sorry."

"Oh, stop it. I was just joking." He squeezed her shoulder. "Good luck tonight. I'll pick you up in the morning for breakfast, okay? Don't worry, it's with the entire group," he reassured her when he saw her biting her lip a bit anxiously.

"Okay," she said. "I just… I don't want him to be alone. Not now and not tomorrow, either."

He smiled at her. "I get it." He blew her a kiss. "Bye."

She chuckled. "Bye." She closed the door behind him and turned around.

"What did he say?" Fiyero croaked from his bed.

Elphaba jumped. "Oz, Fiyero!" She exhaled slowly. "I thought you were asleep!"

"Sorry."

Elphaba sat down on the edge of the bed, touching his shoulder. "He's covering for me," she said. "I'm staying with you tonight."

He rolled over to face her. "Really?" he asked. "I mean… I'd really like for you to stay, but I don't want you to if it'd get you in trouble."

She leant over and kissed him. "It won't. I'll be fine. I'm not leaving you alone right now, Yero."

She stroked his cheek and he turned his head to kiss her fingers. "Thank you."

She sat next to him, trailing random patterns on his back. He was lying on his side in the foetal position, clutching her hand as if it was his lifeline, playing with her fingers.

"Yero?" she asked him softly. "Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want something to eat, to drink, or do you want to talk?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

"But I want to help you."

He looked up at her. "You are helping," he said quietly. "Just… just stay with me. Please?"

"Of course." She ran her fingers through his hair. "I already told you, I'm not going anywhere."

She picked the letter up from his nightstand and skimmed through it again. He had showed it to her when they had still been in that alley behind the café. The general had kept his letter very practical; a list of names of people who had survived, a list of those missing and a list of those who had died, along with a short explanation of what had happened and a brief message in which he conveyed his condolences.

"What if my father dies?" Fiyero whispered suddenly.

Elphaba put the letter back and lied down beside him. "Yero…"

He met her gaze. "General Waldin says it's unlikely that he will survive."

"Unlikely," Elphaba said, cupping his face. "But not impossible."

He sighed. "No, but…" He bit his lip. "'Unlikely' still isn't good, is it? And… and my Mum… the general doesn't even say what condition she's in. What if they both die, Fae? What if my entire family will be dead within a few days?" He choked on a sob. "Maybe they're already gone – it takes a while for mail to travel from the Vinkus to Shiz. Maybe I'm an orphan right now and I don't even know it yet."

Elphaba's heart broke when she saw the look on his face.

He put his head on her shoulder, holding her to him tightly.

"If he dies," he whispered. "If my Dad dies… that means I'll be King."

Elphaba hadn't even thought about that.

"How can I be King?" Fiyero whispered, on the verge of tears again. "I can't rule a country… Especially not without my Dad. I don't know the first thing about being King. I don't have any skills whatsoever. Sure, I know how to dance through life and organise parties and hold down my liquor, but…" The tears started falling from his eyes. "I've been the worst son – and prince – ever. All I did was make it even harder for them. They must be so disappointed in me…"

"Yero, no!" Elphaba cradled his face between her hands, forcing him to look into her eyes. "They're not disappointed in you," she said firmly. "They're your parents. They love you. Don't think that, Fiyero!"

He buried his face into her shoulder and cried. "But I've been so horrible!"

"Yero…" She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "Everyone feels the need to dig in their heels sometimes. That doesn't mean you disappointed them or you've been a bad son! They love you, I'm sure of that. You told me yourself in one of your letters over the summer that your father said that he was proud of you for staying at Shiz for so long and getting good grades."

Fiyero sniffled and nodded. "He did," he said quietly. "He did say that. He thought it was a miracle that I had actually studied enough to pass all my exams…" He laughed softly. "It wasn't a miracle – it was you."

She smiled and wiped his tears away from his cheek, kissing the wet trails they left on his skin. "I love you, Yero. And your parents do, too. You didn't disappoint anyone – don't think that. And don't… don't worry too much about your family until you receive more news, okay? Maybe… maybe they'll be okay."

He sighed deeply. "Maybe."

She kissed his temple and pulled the blankets over him. "Try to get some sleep," she said softly.

He tightened his grip on her hand. "Stay with me?"

"Always," she promised him, allowing him to pull her under the blankets with him and press her to his chest.

She wrapped her arms around him and held him as he pressed his cheek to her hair, breathing in her scent.

"I'm not going anywhere," she murmured.


	9. The fight

**AN: Only one more day until Flashdance! I'm super excited - I mean, how often do you have a front row seat with your friend at the final performance of a show you love? I'll be wearing my What A Feeling!-shirt for sure! :D**

**Anyways, this chapter is... um... long. Like, nearly 4,000 words, when usually my chapters are between 2,000 and 3,000. And it's... intense. Which is why I didn't split it up - I wanted to get this all into one chapter.**

**You won't find out what happened to Fiyero's family until a few chapters from now - first there will be more angsty stuff, and drama stuff, and... you know. **

**You're really going to hate me after this one, I guess. Even though no-one dies. Not even almost.**

* * *

**Chapter 9. The fight**

"Fabala." Nessa grabbed her sister's arm, pulling her to a stop.

Elphaba turned, surprised. "What's wrong?"

"Is it true?" Nessa hissed.

Elphaba was still confused. "Is what true?"

"Is it true that you _told _Fiyero and that the two of you are secretly seeing each other?"

Elphaba tried to keep her face neutral, but she knew she had paled visibly. "Where did you get that idea?" she demanded a little too sharply.

Nessa narrowed her eyes. "I figured it out myself," she said. "I thought it was suspicious how Fiyero went from moodified and completely heartbroken one day to happy and light again the next day, but I hoped I was wrong. I followed you, though. When you went to comfort Fiyero the other day, when he had just received his letter? The day we were all at the café together? I said I needed to use the bathroom, but I followed you outside. I saw you kissing him, Elphaba. What in Oz are you thinking? Do you have _any _idea what will happen if you get caught?"

"We won't get caught," said Elphaba firmly, but Nessa shook her head.

"You're saying that now," she pointed out, "yet _I _followed you and you didn't see me, did you?"

Elphaba had to acknowledge that.

"For Oz's sake, be _careful_, Fabala," Nessa hissed. "This isn't just about you and me, or you and him. This is about Gazilon, Boq, Galinda… about every other student here on campus. Do you know what will happen if anyone finds out? If this doesn't end the way you want it to? If you and Gazilon don't play your parts right? I'll tell you what will happen, Elphaba – Shiz will become a heap of stones and dead bodies. That's what will happen."

She turned around and wheeled away, leaving Elphaba to think about her words.

She jumped when someone wrapped his arms around her from behind, but relaxed when she realised it was Gazilon.

He planted a kiss on her cheek, taking the opportunity to whisper in her ear, "You okay?"

She shrugged listlessly.

He eyed her, concern etched in his features. "El?"

She bit her lip. "This is ridiculous," she muttered, rubbing her temples in an attempt to ward off an impending headache. "Gaz, this… all of this… it doesn't make sense. It's ridiculous, it's stupid and it's unfair, and it can't go on like this."

"What do you mean?" he asked her solemnly, taking her to a bench nearby and setting her down.

"Nessa talked to me." Elphaba ran her fingers through her long, black hair. "She knows about me and Fiyero. She followed me out of the Primrose Café that night."

Gazilon swore softly under his breath.

"Yeah, that about sums it up," Elphaba agreed. She sighed. "She's right, though. This… this thing I'm doing with Fiyero… it's too much of a risk, Gaz. She's right – I'm being selfish. Look around. All those students, all those teachers… everything could be blown to pieces if someone were to find out about me and Yero – and I mean that in the literal way."

Gazilon didn't say anything, quietly mulling it over in his head.

"But I can't leave Fiyero right now, either," she whispered. "He needs me more than ever now… Gaz, what am I supposed to do? This is madness!"

"I can only agree with that," he said, covering his eyes with his hand for a moment, taking a deep breath. "I did it – pushing you to talk to Fiyero, I mean – because I couldn't stand seeing you unhappy, but… maybe we haven't really thought about this well enough. Maybe we've been taking the possible consequences too lightly."

Elphaba nodded, looking defeated. "People's _lives _are on the line here, Gaz," she said, the small tremble in her voice the only sign of how upset she really was. "Think about the look on Fiyero's face when he found out that there had been an attack on his family, and then imagine that look being on faces of parents, brothers, sisters, friends and family all over Oz. Hundreds of people having lost a close friend or a family member in the explosion that took place at Shiz, all because a certain green girl was too selfish to break up with her boyfriend. I can't be that girl, Gazilon. I can't be the one responsible for something like that. I refuse to be."

He took her hand and squeezed it. "I know."

"I have to break up with him."

Gazilon sighed and nodded reluctantly. "I guess."

"But how can I do that? Especially now? 'Gee, Yero, I'm sorry about your family. Oh, by the way, this isn't working. I'm breaking up with you. Bye!' He's all alone, Gaz. Right now he has no-one. Galinda is a sweetheart, but she just doesn't understand… and he's never been particularly close to either Nessa or Boq. I'm all he has right now."

"It's up to you, Elphaba," Gazilon said quietly. He placed his hands on both her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "But no matter what you decide, I'll support you. You know that, right?"

She nodded, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

"And besides," he tried to console her. "Even if you do decide that you need to break it off with you… he knows the truth now. He'll understand, I'm sure of it."

Elphaba sighed. "I guess." She kissed Gazilon. "Thanks, Gaz."

"You're welcome." He offered her his arm. "Want me to walk you to class?"

"Yes, please." She linked her arm with his and together they walked towards the History building.

* * *

After her classes for the day were over, Elphaba slipped into Fiyero's dorm room again, carrying a paper bag. "Yero?"

He was still on his bed, staring at the ceiling. When he heard her voice, he turned his head in her direction. "Hey."

She put her school bag down, but took the small paper one with her as she sat down on the edge of his bed. "You weren't in class today."

He shrugged.

"How are you feeling?"

He shrugged again. "I don't really know."

She put the paper bag away and lay down beside him, looking into his sapphire blue eyes. "Yero?" She slipped her fingers into his and laced them together. "I know it's hard right now, but they might be okay. Just have faith."

The only reply she received was yet another shrug.

She wrapped her arms around him and stroked his back; and that was enough for him to burst into tears again, burying his face in her neck and hair and sobbing his heart out.

"I'm sorry, Yero," she whispered. "I wish I could do something to help you."

He tightened his grip on her, holding her close. "I love you."

She kissed him softly. "I love you, too. Now, come on." She helped him to sit up, propping some pillows behind his back. Then she took the paper bag from his nightstand and opened it, showing him the food inside. "You really have to eat."

He sighed. "I'm not hungry –"

"Fiyero," she cut him off. "You had three bites of breakfast this morning and I'm betting you haven't eaten anything else since then. Am I right?"

His silence was answer enough for her.

"So you're going to eat."

He didn't move and in the end, she just ended up feeding him. She managed to get some soup and half a sandwich into him before he didn't want any more, but she left the other half of the sandwich and the remnants of the soup on his desk for him to eat later. She then proceeded to practically force him into the bathroom to clean up – "Yero, you know I love you, but you're not smelling too good right now. When was the last time you brushed your teeth or took a shower?" – and he re-emerged wearing his pyjamas, crawling into his bed instantly and curling up on his side with his head in Elphaba's lap.

She just sat with him, running her fingers through his hair, but otherwise not moving and not saying anything. She didn't know what she could do or say to make this better for him; and she felt awful knowing that she was going to have to break his heart soon. For his own safety, but still.

He fell asleep eventually, his breathing evened out. Elphaba gently lifted his head and replaced her lap with his pillow, slowly moving away and pulling the blankets over him. She stroked his cheek and kissed his forehead before tiptoeing to the door and quietly slipping out of the room again.

She sighed, resting her back against the door for a moment and closing her eyes. She felt horrible leaving him there by himself, but she couldn't stay with him. Not again. It would arise too much suspicion.

She pushed herself away from the door and made her way back to her and Galinda's shared dorm room.

The blonde immediately started squealing when Elphaba entered. "Ooh! Elphie! These flowers were just brought in for you!" She bounced up and down, pointing at a bouquet of red, pink and white roses that was sitting on Elphaba's desk. "It's from Gazilon! Isn't he just the sweetest?"

"He is," Elphaba agreed flatly, dumping her bag and disappearing into the bathroom.

Galinda frowned. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Elphaba said, her voice muffled by the bathroom door.

Galinda shrugged and bounced over to where the flowers were, burying their nose in them and inhaling deeply. "Well, you can think whatever you want, Elphie, but I'm going to give him bonus points for adding the pink roses. Apparently he agrees with me that pink goes good with green!"

Elphaba grumbled something unintelligible.

"Seriously, Elphie, what is the matter with you?" Galinda asked, plopping down onto her roommate's bed. "Are you okay?"

Elphaba appeared again from the bathroom, dressed in her nightgown.

"I'm fine, Glin," she said. She sank down onto her bed with a sigh. "It's just that… I saw Fiyero earlier, and he's so sad… I guess I'm just feeling guilty because I'm so happy with Gazilon when one of my friends is so miserable."

She was actually sort of proud of herself for coming up with that excuse. It was as close to the truth as she could get, and it was plausible, too.

Galinda apparently agreed, because her face softened. "Oh, Elphie. I know it's hard." She hugged her friend. "It's awful to see one of your friends in pain, but it shouldn't prevent you from being happy with your boyfriend!"

"It's not preventing me from being happy," Elphaba assured her. "I'm just… I don't know. It bothers me sometimes. Especially after the way we ended, you know? Fiyero and I, I mean. It's just that… he has no-one right now."

Galinda stroked her arm comfortingly. "That's not true! We're all here for him," she promised. "He'll be fine, Elphie."

Elphaba forced a weak smile. "Yeah. I guess." She pretended to yawn. "I'm tired, I think I'm going to sleep now."

"Okay." Galinda jumped up and went back to her own side of the room, pulling out a pink nightgown. "Night, Elphie."

"Goodnight, Galinda."

The blonde fell asleep within minutes, her soft snores filling the room while Elphaba just lay awake and stared at the ceiling without seeing anything.

* * *

"Fiyero, I'm really sorry, but this has to stop."

Elphaba stared at her own mirror image. "No, that's too harsh," she muttered to herself. She took a deep breath. "Yero… I can't do this anymore. The risk is too big. It's too dangerous."

Something like that? She had no idea. How was she supposed to tell Fiyero that he had to let her go?

She sighed and leant forward, resting her forehead against the glass of the mirror. She turned on the tap and splashed some cold water in her face, but it barely made her feel any better.

_At least I don't have to have this conversation right away,_ she tried to console herself. It had been four days since Fiyero had received his letter and he was just starting to get back on his feet again, coming out of his room and joining the others at the Primrose Café for meals sometimes… maybe it was too soon to drop this bomb on him. Maybe she could wait a little bit longer. Procrastinate the inevitable.

She closed her eyes for a moment; then she straightened her back and left the girls' bathroom…

…only to run into Fiyero right outside.

He was eyeing her with an odd look on his face – a mix of understanding, defeat, anger and hurt. Mostly hurt, though.

"Elphaba?" he asked quietly. "I think we need to talk."

She winced slightly when she realised what must have happened and she bit her lip. "You heard me in there." It was a statement, not a question.

He nodded. "Can we talk? In private?"

"I… I guess," she said faintly, and he took her hand and gently pulled her across campus. They finally disappeared into her dorm room, knowing that Galinda was in class at the moment, and they both sat down on her bed.

"Yero…" She only realised that she was still biting her lip when she suddenly tasted blood. "I'm so sorry."

She figured that if he had heard her, anyway, there was no use in procrastinating now. She might as well get it over with.

He sighed. "Look, Fae, I… I understand," he said gently. "Really, I do. You want to protect me, and I appreciate that… but I love you. Being apart from you… it's killing me. Especially now. Elphaba…" He took her hand and looked into her eyes pleadingly. "You may be all I have left."

"Don't say that!" She shook her head. "Yero, your family will be okay," she insisted. "And… and you'll still have me. We'll be friends. You also have Galinda, Nessa, Boq… we all care about you, Yero. We all want to help you, and –"

"It's not the same!" He took a deep breath. "Fae… I can't do this without you. I understand why our relationship can't be out in the open, but… but you can't just end it!"

The mere thought of her breaking up with him gave him the feeling that he was choking, like he couldn't breathe. Right now she was the only good thing in his life. There was a big chance that his father was already dead by now, and he was convinced of the fact that his sister was, too – where else could she have gone? If she was still underneath the collapsed castle, there was no way she could have survived. And his mother… for all he knew she was dead, or dying, as well. He hadn't heard anything else from the Vinkus and he had no idea what had been going on there or what else had happened.

Right now, he was alone. He was hanging on by a thread, and that thread was Elphaba. If he lost her, too… he didn't know what he would do.

She took both his hands in hers. "Yero," she said softly. "Please believe me when I say that this is the hardest thing I've ever done."

He looked down at their joined hands, hearing what she didn't say. "But you're doing it anyway."

She nodded, lowering her eyes. "I'm sorry, Fiyero," she whispered. "I really am. But I… I have to. Nessa realised what I was doing, and… she was right. I can't put everyone in danger like this. I love you, Yero. I love you so much."

"But it's not enough," he concluded bitterly.

She looked shocked by that. "No!" She squeezed his hands, making him look up at her again. "Yero, it's enough," she said desperately. "It's more than enough. But don't you see? People's _lives _are depending on this! That's part of why I'm doing it – because I love you, and I'd rather let you go than see you end up dead!"

"Elphaba, I don't care if I'm in danger because –"

"But it's not just you!" She shook her head and pulled her hands away, running her fingers through her hair in frustration. "Fiyero, this is not _all_ about you! This is about _everyone_, I told you that! All of Shiz will be attacked if someone finds out about this – about us. I can't take that risk, Yero. You must understand that. Please."

It felt like his entire world was spiralling out of control. He was angry, unhappy, scared and desperate. He honestly had no idea what he was going to do without her. She was the only thing that was grounding him right now, and her telling him that he was losing her… he couldn't handle that.

"Elphaba, _please_," he begged, near tears. "You can't do this to me!"

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Yero, but… don't do this. Please. Don't make this harder."

"I'm making this harder?" Now, in all his despair and helplessness, his anger was taking over. "Elphaba, _you're _the one making this hard!" He rose to his feet, barely realising that he was shouting now. "You're really doing this to me right now? After everything that happened, you're just going to make it even worse by ending our relationship? Are you really that cold and unfeeling?" he spat.

He could see that he had hurt her, but he just couldn't stop. "From anyone else, I had expected that; but not from you, Elphaba. I had never expected _you_, of all people, to be so insensitive and mean. What, you saw that I was already down, so you thought you'd just kick me and make sure I wouldn't get up again?"

"Yero…" She looked up at him, her chocolate brown eyes huge and filled with tears. "Of course not, I… I love you. You know that. More than anything."

"Well, you have a funny way of showing it!" he snarled.

She rose to her feet as well, angrily blinking away her tears. "You're not being fair, Fiyero! You know I don't have a choice!"

"Of course you have a choice! Everyone has a choice! You're just choosing to break my heart and trample on it like it doesn't mean anything to you at all!"

"It means _everything_ to me!_ You _mean everything to me!" She was shouting, too, now. "But I don't want any more blood on my hands than I already have, Fiyero! It's my fault that my mother died and that Nessa is crippled and that in itself is bad enough – I can't just stand by and watch as everyone at Shiz is murdered because of me!"

He almost regretted everything he had said when he looked at her face. Almost. But all the hurt, all the pain, all the sadness and the grief he had been holding in – every emotion he had felt ever since he had come back to Shiz after the summer – was rising to the surface now, manifesting itself as anger. A hot, searing anger that rushed through his body, taking over so that he couldn't feel anything anymore except for that rage.

"You're just saying that," he hissed. "You keep on saying that. But you know what, Elphaba?" He narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe that. You cannot sit there and tell me with a straight face that if they find out about our relationship, they're going to 'attack all of Shiz'." He used his fingers as quote marks, mocking her. "Because I don't believe it. I don't believe that the fate of hundreds of people depends on two persons pretending to be in love, Elphaba."

"I know it sounds stupid," Elphaba said quietly. "But I told you, Fiyero – it's about a bondage between the daughter of the Governor of Munchkinland and the son of two high Glikkun officials. They said that -"

"Yes, I get it," he cut her off harshly. "They say that if you don't convince everyone that you're in love, they'll attack Shiz. Blah blah blah. Sure they say that. Of course they put the fate of an entire university in the hands of two students. Why not?" He snorted and crossed his arms, glaring at her. "Do you want to know what I think, Elphaba?" he sneered. "I think that none of that is actually true. I think that all this is just a stupid, Oz-damned lie because you fell in love with someone else and you're too much of a coward to just admit it to me!"

She was literally gawking at him, her mouth slightly open.

"You did _not _just say that," she whispered, struggling to keep herself under control, though she wasn't sure what she would do if she lost control. She suspected it would either be punching him in the face or bursting into tears. Maybe both.

"Oh, believe me, I did!" Fiyero snarled. "You're lying, Elphaba. You've been lying to me all along and you thought I was stupid enough so that I would never find out! Was it nice, having two boyfriends at the same time? Did you enjoy it? I bet you did. And then you started to feel guilty and so you made up all this crap about you being unable to take the risk, people dying because of you, and more of that bullshit! Well, let me burst your bubble, Elphaba: I don't believe you!"

She was trembling now, her body shaking all over – though that was out of emotional pain or suppressed anger, she wasn't sure. She just pointed one trembling finger at the door. "Get out."

The look in her eyes, a mix of disbelief, rage and an incredible amount of pain, caused his anger to dissipate almost instantly; and horror dawned on his face when he realised what he had just said. "Elph-"

"Get _out_!" she screamed, hurling a book at him with all the strength in her body. It only missed him because he ducked in time; but he could see the emerald sparks around her fingers, indicating that he would be in a whole lot of more trouble if he stayed now.

Still, he didn't care. He had to make it up to her. He couldn't believe that he had actually said that – he had just been overcome by emotion, about his parents, this whole thing with Elphaba, everything… but she hadn't deserved that. He knew she was telling the truth, and he felt like the most horrible person alive. He needed to make this right.

"Fae, please," he begged. "I'm sor–"

Before he could even finish speaking, she lashed out at him with her magic. He was hit by an invisible force, causing him to be shoved backwards and out of the door. His back hit the wall behind him – hard – and before he had even scrambled to his feet, the door to Elphaba and Galinda's dorm room had flown shut. When he tried the doorknob, he wasn't surprised to find it locked.

"Elphaba?" he whispered. "Please. I'm sorry."

No sound came from within, and he knew this wasn't something he would be able to fix soon. Especially not today.

And so he turned around, hung his head, and left.

On the other side of the door, Elphaba buried her face in her pillow, desperate sobs racking her body.


	10. The news

**AN: I'll just do a very short rant about Flashdance: it was amazing. They were all great, I loved sitting in the front row and I could see everything so incredibly well, the orchestra was wonderful, the dancing was perfect, the singing and acting were fantastic, and I had an amazing time.**

**Fae the Queen & Elphaba'sGirl: ... I can't remember ever promising a happy ending... for GoGGP, yes, but not for this one... O:)**

**Hi, Sander! Nice to see that you're still reading! ^_^**

* * *

**Chapter 10. The news**

"You. Over there." Galinda jabbed a finger into Gazilon's face.

The boy blinked. "Galinda?"

The blonde girl glared at him. "Could you please explain to me why I had to stay over in Milla's room last night because my roommate refused to open the door?"

He frowned, confused. "Elphaba isn't opening the door?"

"She won't even talk to me," said Galinda. "She's locked the door and she's not responding. I was worried at first and I told her so, but the only thing she said was 'go away' and I could tell by the sound of her voice that she had been crying. So, tell me. What's that all about?"

Gazilon shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea, Galinda," he said honestly. "I spoke to her yesterday and she was fine then. We agreed to meet for brunch today at eleven – I was supposed to pick her up at her room and we were going into town. That's actually where I was headed now. To her room, I mean."

Galinda was still eyeing him suspiciously. "So you guys didn't have a fight or something?"

Gazilon shook his head. "No. Not at all. We're perfect, actually," he said. "Or, well, we were, last time I saw her. Which was right before she went to meet up with…" His eyes widened as realisation dawned on him. "…Fiyero," he finished.

Galinda frowned. "She was meeting Fiyero?"

"She, um… wanted to see how he was doing," Gazilon lied. "You know, what with his family and all. You know El – she always thinks about everyone but herself and she wants to be there for all of her friends."

"She does," Galinda agreed readily, much to Gazilon's relief. "So she went to talk to Fiyero?"

"For as far as I know, yes," said Gazilon. "I don't know – maybe _they _got into a fight. He's pretty emotional right now, with everything going on…"

Galinda sighed. "I could see him saying something stupid," she muttered. "Fiyero is the type of person that crops up his feelings and then releases them all at once. Trust me, it's not pretty. If he did that to Elphie… I wouldn't be surprised if he went all crazy on her about the way their relationship ended. He tends to drag happenings from the past into the conversation when he gets mad." She looked up at Gazilon. "Can't you try and talk to her?" she asked pleadingly. "You're her boyfriend, she loves you. She'll listen to you."

"Maybe," Gazilon conceded. "I can try."

And so ten minutes later, he found himself outside the door to Elphaba and Galinda's dorm room. Galinda had wanted to come with him, but he had asked her to give them a few minutes, which she had accepted.

"El?" he called through the door. "It's me."

No reply.

"Are you alright? We're worried about you."

Nothing.

"Elphaba, please," he said. "What's going on? Is it Fiyero? Did he do something?" He lowered his voice. "You tried to break up with him, didn't you? I take it it didn't go well?"

Suddenly the door opened, revealing Elphaba. Gazilon was shocked at her appearance. Her eyes were red and puffy, with bags underneath them. She was strangely pale, which made her face look almost grey. Her hair was tangled and she looked like she had slept in the dress she had been wearing the day before – if she had slept at all.

"No," she said quietly. "No, it did not go well. Can you please just…" She shook her head. "Just leave me alone," she whispered and she closed and locked the door again.

Gazilon rested his forehead against the wood. "I'm sorry."

She didn't answer and he sighed and went back downstairs to find Galinda.

* * *

"Hi, guys," Fiyero greeted them when they entered the classroom. He didn't look much better than Elphaba had, Gazilon noted. There were bags under the prince's eyes as well.

Fiyero's eyes drifted over the small group that found their seats and he frowned. "Where's Fae?"

"As if you wouldn't know!" Galinda said snippily. "For your information, princey boy – I had to sleep in Milla's room last night because Elphie wouldn't open the door, and for as far as I know, that's your fault! You're the last one that talked to her yesterday!"

"What happened?" Nessa asked him softly.

He gave first her, then Gazilon a helpless look; and they both understood that it wasn't something they could discuss in the middle of the classroom.

Luckily for them, Galinda didn't notice – she was fuming. "Well, whatever happened," she said, gritting her teeth, "you're going to have to make it up to her. I need my clothes! I mean, I borrowed Milla's this morning, and I suppose I could do it again – she has quite the fashion sense, even though it's not as perfectified as mine…"

"I tried," Fiyero said softly. "To make it up to her, I mean. She won't talk to me. I was thrown out of the room by a magic blast."

Nessa, Gazilon, Galinda and Boq all stared at him in shock.

"Whoa," said Boq, impressed, and Galinda closed her eyes for a moment.

"If she got so mad that she lost control of her magic," the blonde said slowly, "then I don't even want to know what you've done."

Fiyero buried his face in his hands.  
"You've got to fix this, Fiyero," Nessa insisted, and the prince sighed.

"I know," he said tiredly. "I know, okay? I'll try. I'll do my best. I promise."

That was good enough for them – for now, anyway – and they turned around to focus on the lecture.

Fiyero couldn't concentrate, however. It was hard for him to concentrate on a lecture at the best of times; but now, he literally didn't hear a word the professor was saying.

Elphaba always went to class. Always. For her not to come to class today, locking herself in her room instead and not even allowing Galinda in… that fact, more than anything, made him realise how badly he had really hurt her.

He didn't wait for the others when the bell rang. Instead, he immediately grabbed his bag and ran over to the girls' dorm building.

He went up to Elphaba and Galinda's dorm room and knocked on the door.

No reply came.

"Elphaba?"

Elphaba, on the other side of the door, had just been about to move to the door and open it – after all, she couldn't keep locking Galinda out, since it was the blonde's bedroom as much as it was Elphaba's own - when she heard Fiyero calling out to her.

She froze.

"Fae, please talk to me."

Elphaba turned around and crawled back into her bed, the place where she had spent the past day and night. She pulled the blankets over her head.

"Elphaba…" Fiyero sighed and rested his forehead against the door. "I'm sorry."

She scoffed softly from underneath the blankets.

"I'm so, so sorry. Please open the door, Fae. Please."

He heard something inside the room. Then her muffled voice. "Don't call me that."

His heart leapt up – at least she was talking to him now. "Elphaba, what I said was mean and stupid and I'm so, so sorry. Please, just… come out. Talk to me. Please."

She huddled deeper in her blankets, hugging her pillow. "No."

"Elph-"

"Just go away, Fiyero. I don't want to talk to you."

"Will you talk to Galinda, then?" he pleaded. "Or Nessa, or Gazilon? They're worried about you, Fae."

Elphaba didn't reply. She felt guilty knowing that her friends were worrying about her; but she really didn't feel like talking to anyone right now.

"Okay," Fiyero said after a while, defeated. His shoulders slumped and he turned around. "I'll send Galinda up to talk to you later."

He ran into the blonde outside, accompanied by Nessa, Boq and Gazilon.

"And?" asked Galinda. "Did you make it up to Elphie yet?"

Fiyero sighed and shook his head. "She doesn't want to talk to me," he muttered.

Gazilon and Boq gave him sympathetic looks. Nessa narrowed her eyes and Galinda glared at him.

"Why are boys always so stupid?" she said in exasperation.

"Hey!" Boq and Gazilon protested in unison.

"It's true," Galinda insisted, and Nessa nodded.

"_I _never made Fabala so upset that she hid away in her room for two days," the wheelchair-bound girl pointed out. "And Galinda hasn't, either."

"That might just be Fiyero," Boq protested. "Just because he said or did something stupid, doesn't mean boys in general are stupid!"

"Touché," Galinda acknowledged.

Fiyero was too sad and tired to even protest.

Nessa looked at him in concern. "Fiyero?" she asked softly. "Are you alright?"

"Sure." He didn't sound very convincing. "I'm just… going back to my room, I guess."

"I'll to try and talk to Elphie," Galinda decided.

"Maybe I should talk to her instead," Nessa offered. "I mean, if this is what I think it's about…"

"What do you think it's about, then?" Boq asked curiously.

Nessa completely missed the warning look Gazilon shot her – she was looking at Fiyero instead. Sympathetically, she said, "She tried to break it off with you, didn't she? Because it was too dangerous to go on with what the two of you were doing. I talked to her about it yesterday morning."

Gazilon closed his eyes for a moment. Fiyero gaped at the girl in the wheelchair. Galinda and Boq just looked confused.

"Break what off?" Boq asked. "Am I missing something? I thought they already broke up?"

Nessa clamped both hands over her mouth in horror when she realised what she had said.

Gazilon quickly looked around to see if anyone else had been near who might have overheard. Thankfully, he didn't see anyone.

Galinda's eyes were wide as she stared at Nessa, then at Fiyero. "Wait. Are you saying that… that the two of you… Behind his back…" She motioned to Gazilon.

"Actually, I was involved," said Gazilon drily.

Galinda gaped at him.

Nessa looked up at Gazilon, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to…"

"I know you didn't," Gazilon reassured her. "It's fine. Besides…" He took a breath. "I guess it's not a bad thing for Galinda and Boq to know about it as well." He looked at them. "As long as the two of you can keep a secret."

Despite himself, Fiyero snorted. "This is Galinda we're talking about."

Nessa bit her lip. "True."

"Hey!" Galinda exclaimed. "I can keep a secret!"

She was met with three sceptic looks from Boq, Nessa and Fiyero. Gazilon just shrugged a bit sheepishly.

"We should go somewhere else and talk," said Gazilon. "My dorm room?"

The others agreed. Only Fiyero shook his head.

"You go," he said. "I know everything already, and I just… I need some time to think."

Nessa gave him a sympathetic smile and she, Boq, Gazilon and Galinda left. Fiyero stuffed his hands in his pockets and wandered across campus for half an hour or so, just walking without really going anywhere. He only looked up when he heard someone calling his name.

"Prince Fiyero!" Morrible came rushing towards him, waving something about. Fiyero froze when he saw what it was.

A letter.

Morrible was panting slightly when she finally reached him. "This just came for you by express post," she said, waving her hand in an attempt to cool off her face. She handed him the letter. "I was told to find you and bring this to you immediately."

Fiyero thanked her quickly and practically ran off to his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He tore open the envelope and his eyes flew over the words in the letter, drinking them in as he prayed for good news.

_Your mother is doing well, considering the circumstances, _the general wrote at some point. _She is currently still staying at the hospital, but she is recovering and she will be able to leave the hospital soon._

Fiyero slowly breathed a sigh of relief. His mother was alive. She would be fine.

_Unfortunately, your sister, Princess Cyara of the Vinkus, is still missing. Her body has not yet been discovered among the remains of the royal castle, Adurin Iir._

Fiyero closed his eyes for a moment, but then he quickly opened them again and read on.

_We are very sorry to inform you that your father, His Royal Majesty King Hamold Jonesto Tiggular of the Vinkus, has passed away last night._

Suddenly it felt like all the air had disappeared from the room and he couldn't breathe. He stared at the letter wide-eyed as he slowly sank down onto the floor, his back against the wall, clutching the letter tightly as he tried to read on, but he only picked up bits and pieces of the general's words.

…_doctors tried everything they could, but they could not save him…_

…_when the castle collapsed…_

…_covered in rubble…_

…_injuries…_

…_too much blood loss…_

…_very sorry…_

The room started spinning around Fiyero.

His father was dead.

He dropped the letter, his hands shaking. He rose to his feet, trying to support himself by gripping the wall, but he felt dizzy and disoriented. This wasn't happening. This could not be happening.

_My father is dead…_

He screamed and punched the wall, clenching his fist and ramming it into the panelled wood over and over again, until there was a dent in the wall and blood was trickling down his fingers.

Then he sank down onto the floor, crying.


	11. The friend

**AN: Favourite review this time was from Woodland59: 'Fiyero, go ask her if she wants to build a snowman.' :)**

**Okay, guys, let me just make something clear. I never said this story would _not _have a happy ending; I'm just saying that it's no guarantee it _does _have a happy ending. So it may or may not have a happy ending. Frankly, I haven't even decided yet myself.**

**Also, killing of Hamold might be the hardest thing I've done since killing off Nessa in Shadows; but it's a war, there need to be casualties, and if I had to decide between Hamold, Lori and Cyara... well, I just couldn't kill Lori and Cyara.**

**This chapter is for Steph, who is currently in London to see Wicked for her birthday with our fellow Verkaikings. A very happy birthday to you, girl! 3**

* * *

**Chapter 11. The friend**

"Elphie?"

Elphaba peered out from underneath her blankets – she had made a nest out of them and had been hiding in it ever since her fight with Fiyero. When she saw Galinda, she sighed and rested her chin on her hands.

"How did you get in?"

Galinda grimaced. "I, um…" She held up her own room key.

Elphaba raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I left it in here," the blonde explained sheepishly. "In the room, I mean. So that's why I thought I couldn't get in, because you'd locked the door with your key and I thought my key was still in here… but it turned out to be in my purse."

"So basically you could have come in at any given time and you didn't have to sleep over in Milla's room at all," Elphaba concluded.

Galinda sighed. "Yeah. Maybe I should have actually _searched _for my room key first," she conceded.

Then she shook her head and jumped onto Elphaba's bed. "Elphie, Gazilon and Nessa told us everything," she said solemnly.

Elphaba stiffened. "What?"

Galinda kicked off her shoes and crawled under the blankets with Elphaba, lying on her side, facing her friend. "Nessa slipped up," she said. "She said something about you trying to break up with Fiyero and it being too dangerous, and then she and Gazilon had to tell us, because they knew otherwise I would never have let it go." She giggled, but sobered again quickly. "Elphie, I'm so sorry."

Elphaba sighed. "It's fine, Glin," she said quietly. "It's just something I have to do."

Galinda shook her head fervently. "No. No, Elphaba Thropp, it's _not _fine," she said sternly. "I hate your father, do you know that? Would you mind me beating him to death with a stiletto heel?" she asked hopefully, which actually elicited a small smile from Elphaba.

The blonde hugged her friend. "See? You're smiling again. It'll be alright, Elphie. Really. We'll figure something out, we'll make it right… but before that, you have to forgive Fiyero."

Elphaba shook her head.

"Elphie, he's really sorry," Galinda tried. "He's being all quiet and moodified…"

"Do you know what he said?" Elphaba asked in a choked voice, and Galinda fell silent.

"No," she admitted quietly.

Elphaba sniffled and buried her face in a pillow. "He said… he said he didn't believe me," she said, her voice trembling. "He accused me of making it all up, everything about the Glikkun people and the attack on Shiz, because I'm really just in love with Gazilon and I'm too much of a coward to admit that to Fiyero. That's what he said."

Galinda was shocked.

"And then he asked me if it was nice, having two boyfriends at the same time," Elphaba continued bitterly. "So no, Galinda. I'm not going to forgive him."

"Elphie…"

The only reply Galinda got was a sob, and she wrapped her arms around her friend, holding the green girl as she cried.

"Elphie," she tried again, stroking her roommate's hair. "He didn't mean that, I'm sure of it. It's just that… he loves you. And he doesn't want to lose you. It's hurting him, Elphie. And I know it hurts you, too, but… but for him, this is just another thing going wrong in his life. After that letter… he's terrified that his family might be dead, that he might be all alone, and then you tried to leave him as well… he didn't really handle it well," she acknowledged, "and what he said was really, really mean and he's going to need to apologise to you for that at _least _a hundred times… but he's in a lot of pain right now. Fiyero's the kind of person that doesn't talk about his feelings until it's too late, and then he's like an exploding bomb or something."

Elphaba winced. "Don't say that," she begged.

Galinda didn't understand at first, but then she realised that an 'exploding bomb' really wasn't a good metaphor when the threat of an actual exploding bomb was rather real at the moment. If Elphaba and Gazilon didn't play their parts right, anyway.

"Sorry," she said, biting her lip. "I forgot for a moment. Elphie, they're really going to blow up Shiz if you and Gazilon aren't convincing enough?"

Elphaba shrugged, her face still buried in a pillow. "They called it 'an attack'," she said softly. "I'm not sure what they'd do, exactly, but there's no doubt in my mind that it would be awful and involving many, many deaths."

Galinda stroked her best friend's long, raven hair. "I'm sorry." She hugged Elphaba. "Just… just know that we're all here for you," she promised. "I'll try to talk to Fiyero, but Elphie, he… he's just not himself right now. Don't be too hard on him."

Elphaba just sighed and put her head on Galinda's shoulder as the blonde hugged her tightly.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" the smaller girl asked, but Elphaba shook her head.

"Go to class, Glin," she said. "Just… tell them I'm sick, or something. I'll be back tomorrow, I just… need some time."

Galinda smiled. "Of course, Elphie." She hopped off the bed and picked up her purse again. Then she turned around. "Elphie?"

The green girl peered over her blankets.

"For what it's worth," Galinda said softly. "You're my best friend. You're like a sister to me, and I'll do anything I can for you, I promise. I love you."

Elphaba's eyes filled with tears again and she sniffled. "I… I love you, too, Glin," she choked out, and Galinda smiled and wiped away a few tears of her own before quietly slipping out of the room.

* * *

"Elphaba?"

There was something in his voice that caused her to push away the blankets and stare at the door. He sounded like he was hovering on the verge of a breakdown.

"Fae, please…" His voice was hoarse. "I know what I said was mean and unforgivable, and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Just… please come out. Please." He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, his voice barely audible, "I got another letter today."

She swung her legs over the edge of her bed and padded over towards the door on her bare feet. She turned the key in the lock and opened the door.

Fiyero was on the other side, looking more horrendible than she had ever seen him. He looked up and his eyes were filled with tears, but also with relief when he saw that she had opened the door for him.

"My father is dead," he choked out, the tears spilling over and streaming down his face.

Elphaba wordlessly spread her arms and he immediately collapsed into them, wrapping his arms around her and sobbing into her shoulder.

She gently led him inside, kicking the door shut, and moved them over to sit on the edge of her bed. He never once let go of her; his face was still buried in her hair and neck and he was crying a lifetime's worth.

She softly rubbed circled on his back, trying to calm him down a little. His grip on her was so tight that she was sure she would end up with some bruises, but she didn't mind so much.

After a while, his sobs died down a little, though he still did not let go of her. Instead he stayed still in the same position, clinging to her almost desperately. When he finally said something, it was hoarse and barely audible, but she heard it anyway.

"Thank you," he whispered. "For… for letting me in. I was so horrible to you, and…" Another sob escaped his throat.

She heaved a sigh, running her long, green fingers through his hair. "Fiyero," she said gently. "This is much bigger and way more important than me being mad at you because you said something hurtful. Of course I let you in. No matter how angry or hurt I am, I still love you, and I hate seeing you in pain."

He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on her even further.

She put her chin on his shoulder, her arms wrapping around his waist. "I'm so sorry," she said softly. "About your father."

He sniffled slightly. "Will you…" He swallowed. "Will you come to the funeral with me?" he croaked. "Please?"

Her heart broke – how could she say no?

"I'll ask everyone," Fiyero added quietly. "Glin, Nessa, Boq, Gazilon… to keep people from getting suspicious. I just… I need you. Please."

She pulled away slightly to look into his eyes. It pained her to see all the hurt and grief in there, where first there had only been joy and love. She knew this had cut him deep. Not just the loss of his father or the attack on his family, but what had happened between the two of them as well.

"Of course," she said softly now. "I'll be there."

He cried silently and he curled up in a ball, clutching one of her pillows. Elphaba lay down beside him, leaning her forehead against his back.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again. "About everything."

His fingers found hers and he took her hand, squeezing it gently. She planted a kiss on his back and then she opened her mouth and started singing an old Munchkin lullaby her mother had always sung to her when she had still been a little girl.

Slowly but surely, he calmed down; and finally he turned around again to face her, lacing his fingers with hers and looking into her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice small and childlike. "I really am. What I said to you…"

She shook her head and brought her hand up to stroke his cheek. "It's okay, Yero," she said softly. "Really. It's not important. I'm sorry, too. I was being childish, locking myself up and refusing to talk to you…"

"No," he cut her off. "You had every right to be upset." He pressed his lips to her forehead, and she closed her eyes.

"Are we okay?" he whispered.

She nodded, even though she wasn't sure what 'okay' was, exactly.

He curled up in the foetal position again, his head on Elphaba's upper stomach, where he could hear her heartbeat. She ran her fingers through his hair and started singing again, softly, trying to lull him to sleep.

By the time Galinda came in, half an hour or so later, Fiyero was fast asleep, his arms wrapped around Elphaba firmly; and the blonde gave her roommate a questioning look.

"His father died," Elphaba explained in a whisper, and Galinda softened.

"That's awful." She sat down on the edge of Elphaba's bed, looking at the prince. "Will he be okay?"

Elphaba sighed, biting her lip. "I… I don't know."

Galinda placed a comforting hand on her best friend's arm. "Elphie," she said quietly. "We'll all try everything we can to make this easier on you. You need to be with Fiyero right now, and we'll cover for you. Actually," she said with a small laugh, "Gazilon is in his room right now, pretending to be with you. It's all over campus, the fact that you're spending 'so much time'," she used her fingers as quote marks, "in his dorm room. No-one even has the faintest clue that you're actually with Fiyero all the time. It's okay, Elphie. We're helping you in every way we can. He just… needs you right now."

Elphaba nodded, a soft look on her face as she looked down at a sleeping Fiyero. "I know."

Galinda squeezed her hand tightly. "I'll just go and stay over with Milla again tonight," she decided. "If anyone asks, I'll just say that I don't like sleeping alone in my room or something, but… I think you guys need some privacy."

Elphaba flashed her friend a tired smile. "Thanks, Glin." She gingerly shifted a little in order to be able to hug the blonde. "You're the best friend ever."

Galinda tossed her hair. "Why, of course," she giggled, winking at Elphaba. Then she patted the green girl's leg. "It'll be alright, Elphie."

"I hope so, Glin." Elphaba sighed and looked down at Fiyero again, lost in thought. "I hope so."


	12. The need

**AN: Kudos to The Wizard Of Wicked for being the 100th reviewer for this story, as well as for quoting my favourite line in this story so far in your review! Virtual cake for you! :)**

**Please check out my one-shot and my new drabble... also, keep your eyes open for a new fic I'm working on. It's called 'Everything' and I'm going to start posting it somewhere in the next few days, along with the sequel to 'Conceal, don't feel' (yes, I know I said in my blog post that I wanted to take it slow with stories... but inspiration strikes when it strikes, people!).**

**This chapter is dedicated to Xanne-Li and Elizabeth, because they're both awesome :). Love you!**

* * *

**Chapter 12. The need**

Fiyero woke up a few hours later, feeling drained, tired and awful, a nasty headache pounding behind his eyes. He slowly sat up, blinking; but he was awake instantly when he realised that Elphaba wasn't there.

"Fae?" he called, his voice slightly panicky.

She came running in from the small adjoining kitchen, looking guilty. "I'm sorry," she apologised as she sat down on the edge of the bed and allowed him to fold her into his arms. "I wanted to be there when you woke up, but I figured you would have to eat something, so…"

He shook his head. "I'm not hungry," he said hoarsely.  
She caressed his cheek, looking into his sapphire blue eyes. "Yero," she said gently. "You need to eat."

He shook his head again wordlessly, pulling her even closer. She didn't protest when he captured her lips with his, running his fingers through her soft, silky hair as he did so. He pulled her back onto the bed with him as he deepened the kiss, gripping her to him almost desperately.

"I love you," he murmured as he moved his lips to her throat, kissing the soft skin there, holding her close to him. She laid her hands flat against his chest, leaning her head back a little to allow him greater access.

"I love you, too, Yero," she whispered. She couldn't deny that.

He gently pushed her down onto the bed, kissing her deeply. His one hand was resting on her hip as the other moved around restlessly, sliding up and down her side and her arm, up to her face to cup her cheek, then down to her waist again. She sighed and relaxed, melting into the kiss the way she had done when he had kissed her that very first time, before the summer. Before things got awful and complicated.

"Please don't ever leave me again," Fiyero whispered, pleading, as he broke away for a moment and rested his forehead against hers to look deep into her dark eyes. He was a little dizzy and out of breath from all the kissing, and he noticed that Elphaba's breathing was ragged as well.

"Promise me," he begged her. "Promise me you'll never leave me again."

She trailed her fingers up his arm, into his hair, then down to his face. "I can't," she whispered. "Fiyero, please… don't ask that of me. You know I can't."

He nodded silently, his sadness visible in his eyes.

She captured his lips again in a soft, sweet kiss. "But you have me now," she whispered. "For now, I'm not going anywhere. And I'll always be there for you. Always. Even if it's not in the way you'd want me to…" She trailed off.

He laced his fingers with hers, pressing soft kisses to her throat, her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids, her jaw and her forehead, peppering her face with kisses.

"Can you at least promise me that?" he breathed. "That I have you for now? At least for tonight? Please? Just for this moment?"

She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him to her, pressing her lips to his again. "I promise," she murmured. "For now, for tonight, I'm yours."

"You're mine," he echoed softly, kissing her again. "Oz, Fae, I love you."

"I missed you so much," she whispered, her eyes fluttering shut as he continued to kiss her and a soft moan escaped her lips. "I missed you so much over the summer, but… but maybe I missed you even more afterwards. When I saw you every day, but I couldn't be near you, and you were looking at me with that sad look in your eyes all the time… it was killing me, Yero. I love you so much, and I hated seeing you in pain… it broke my heart to see you like that, knowing it was my fault."

"It's okay," he whispered between kisses. "I understand, sweetheart. Really. You didn't have a choice."

She heaved a shuddering sigh. "I guess. But still."

He laid his head on her chest and closed his eyes. She stroked his hair, not sure what she could do or say to help him.

"He would have loved you," Fiyero said quietly. "My dad."

Elphaba stayed silent. She understood that he needed to talk about his father.

"He knew about you," Fiyero said in a choked voice. "He was so looking forward to meeting you… the girl who had managed to make his son think." He let out a soft, hoarse laugh. "I bet you two would have gotten along really well. He's really into books, and he loves discussing politics, and things like that… Loved," he corrected himself, realising his mistake. "He loved politics and books."

Elphaba dropped a kiss on his head.

He rolled onto his back, looking up at her. "Fae…"

"Yeah?" She was still stroking his hair, lacing the fingers of her other hand with his and resting their joined hands on his chest.

He squeezed her fingers softly. "I… nothing," he said, heaving a sigh. "I don't know."

"I understand," she whispered.

He rolled back onto his side and stared ahead of him without really seeing anything.

"At least Mum is okay," he broke the silence after a while.

"Maybe your sister is, too," said Elphaba softly.

He shrugged half-heartedly. "Maybe." He sighed. "But I don't think so."

Elphaba kissed him, then helped him up into a sitting position. "Come on. You need to eat something."

He didn't protest as she fed him some fruit and bread and made him drink a glass of water. He curled up next to her as she read to him from one of her favourite books. He asked her to sing for him again, which she did – she was glad to be able to help in some way. After a while, he pinned her down beneath him again and started kissing her; and she wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back, relishing in the feeling of it while she still could.

She didn't protest when his fingers travelled to the back of her dress and started working on the buttons there. His fingers grazed her bare back and he deepened the kiss, pulling her even closer. She could feel his despair and his need, and she knew that right now, he just needed to feel. Had the circumstances been any different, she might have pushed him away and told him to wait – or to not do it at all – but not right now. Right now she just couldn't deny him anything.

He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it over his shoulder. Before it even hit the floor, Fiyero's lips were on Elphaba's again. This time, he deepened the kiss almost immediately.

She laid both her hands flat against his chest, feeling his muscles rippling under his skin as he continued to kiss her. He slowly started slipping her dress off her shoulders, but he stopped himself.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" he breathed, not really wanted to stop, but knowing that he would hate himself later if he did this and she didn't want it.

She looked into his eyes and trailed her hands down his bare chest.

"I'm fine," she said softly.

And she was. She wasn't sure if she was ready for this, or if she wanted it to happen this way… but she knew that she wanted her first time to be with Fiyero. She wanted to give herself to him, all of herself, because she knew that the alternative was to give it to Gazilon; and even though she cared about him, she didn't love him. Not like this. Fiyero was the only man she had ever loved and would ever love, she was absolutely sure of that, and she wanted her first time to be with him, no matter what. This might be the only chance they got, and she was willing to take it.

He nodded and leant down to kiss her again, his arms going around her to hold her close to him. She hooked her leg around his and he groaned softly. "Fae…"

"I love you," she said breathlessly, and he could only kiss her again and mutter, "I love you, too, sweetheart."

"Elphie, Fifi!" A tiny blonde cupcake covered in lilac ruffles suddenly stormed into the room. Galinda froze when she saw the rather compromising position her roommate and the Vinkun prince were in, and her eyes widened to the size of saucers.

Elphaba shot up the moment she heard her best friend's voice and she adjusted the sleeves of her dress, clearing her throat awkwardly as she buttoned her dress back up and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to make herself look decent. Fiyero, looking flushed, just grabbed the blankets and yanked them up to his chin.

"Elphie," Galinda said in a low, slightly trembling, voice. "Please tell me you haven't been that stupid."

"Not yet," Elphaba said sheepishly.

Galinda heaved a sigh with relief. "Oh, Elphie…" She shook her head and perched on the edge of her own bed. "I'm not going to give you a speech about saving your virginity for your wedding night, and stuff – because honestly, that's horribly old-fashioned…"

"Thanks," muttered Elphaba. "I bet Nessa wouldn't be above giving me that speech – a very long and drawn-out version of it – if she ever were to find out."

"She won't hear it from me," Galinda assured her. "Elphie, my problem is not with you and Fiyero sleeping together. You're a big girl and I know you love him, so it's fine with me. But I know about certain customs in Munchkinland."

Elphaba frowned, confused.

"Like the one where they show… um… a certain… proof of the woman's virginity…" Galinda blushed bright pink at those words. "To the family of the groom, you know… after the wedding night."

Elphaba's eyes widened. To be completely honest, she had totally forgotten about that custom. Munchkinland was very strict when it came to women being 'pure' when they married a man; and it was customary to show the bed sheets to the parents of the groom after the wedding night, so that they were convinced of the fact that their new daughter-in-law had been a virgin when she had married their son.

"You could get in serious trouble, Elphie," said Galinda softly. "I know you're supposed to marry Gazilon, and if they find out you've done… it… before your wedding night… I don't know what would happen."

Elphaba shuddered, suddenly feeling icy cold. She was a Munchkinlander by birth – how could she have forgotten about this?

"My father would kill me," she said hoarsely. "Literally, most likely. Either him or the Glikkun people would. And then they would search for the man who took my virginity, and they would kill him, too."

Her grip on Fiyero's hand tightened subconsciously, and he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I wasn't thinking."

"Me, neither," Elphaba sighed. "It's okay, Yero. It's not your fault. I mean…" She sighed again. "It's yet another risk I can't take."

He nodded, and Elphaba looked back at Galinda.  
"Glin?" she asked. "Why did you come to find us, anyway? I thought you were staying over at Milla's tonight."  
"I was," said Galinda, nodding her head so that her golden curls bounced on her shoulders. "I am. But Madame Morrible sent me to find you, Fiyero. She says there's something important going on."

Fiyero blinked. "Something important?' he asked, frowning in confusion.

Galinda nodded again. "Apparently it's about your sister."

Fiyero's eyes widened. He jumped out of the bed and pulled his shirt over his head. Elphaba rose to her feet as well, smoothing out her hair and dress before following Galinda and Fiyero out of the door and across campus, to Madame Morrible's office.

The woman looked up when they entered, peering over her reading glasses like a carp glaring at its food.

"Ah, Master Fiyero," she said. "There you are."

"Galinda says you have news about my sister," Fiyero said impatiently, not wanting to waste time on pleasantries. Not when it was about his family.

"I do." Morrible removed her reading glasses and rose to her feet, looking from Elphaba to Galinda and then to Fiyero. "Do you want to do this in private?"

Fiyero shook his head. "They can stay," he said firmly.

"Alright then. Very well." Morrible walked up to a door in the corner and opened it. "If you will follow me, please."

"Can't you just tell me what's going on?" Fiyero demanded. "What news is there about my sister? Did they find her? Is she dead or is she still alive? _Please_," he said, his voice breaking despite his best efforts not to show any emotion to Morrible. "I need to know."

Morrible nodded slowly. "She's alive," she said.

Fiyero's knees buckled with relief, and Elphaba and Galinda had to grab an arm each to hold him up.

"How is she?" the prince asked hoarsely. "Is she hurt? Will she be okay?"

"She's hurt," Morrible conceded, "but not seriously. Bruises, some cuts, a broken wrist. She will be alright, don't worry. Would you like to see her?"

Fiyero blinked, confused. "See her?"

Morrible gave him a look. "Yes," she said. "See her."

Fiyero kept on staring at her.

"Master Tiggular," Morrible said, looking at him. "Your sister is here."

* * *

**Please review? *puppy-dog eyes***


	13. The princess

**AN: Next chapter will be... um... not fun :P.**

**Moreanswers24: Guess what? CYARA IS HERE! :P**

**Elphaba'sGirl: How? How do you highlight the lines? It's driving me crazy! :')**

**Musicgal3: That's exactly what I love so much about you guys telling me your favourite lines - reading them through your eyes always makes me crack up/'aww'/cry all over again! :D**

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**Chapter 13. The princess**

Fiyero suddenly felt very faint; and Elphaba tightened her grip on him as he swayed slightly. Galinda quickly shot forward again to help her friend.

"Fifi?" she asked softly.

Elphaba looked at Madame Morrible. "Where is she?" she asked.

Morrible nodded towards the door in the corner of the room – the one she had tried to take them to right in the beginning.

Elphaba looked up at Fiyero; and he slowly started moving forward, his hand gripping Elphaba's so tightly that he nearly broke the skin. Flanked by the two girls, he made his way over to the open door and stopped in the doorway, looking inside.

A girl with light blonde hair was sitting on a couch with her back towards the door, wrapped up in a blanket and cradling a cup of something – tea, Fiyero supposed. He slowly took another step forward.

She must have felt his presence, because she turned her head; and when she saw him, she let out a gasp, quickly put her cup on the table and all but flew towards him, nearly knocking him over as she hit him and clung to him like she was never going to let him go again. "Yero!"

"Cyara?" He blinked a few times, dazed; then his arms came up and wrapped around his little sister.

The tears started streaming down her face almost immediately and she buried her face in his neck, crying.

"It was so horrible!" she sobbed, still clinging to her brother. "There was an explosion, and then the castle started caving in… I didn't see Mum and Dad anywhere, and I was so scared, Yero! She… they… I remembered the attacks, the Glikkun people, and… and I didn't know what was happening, but I was so afraid that it was them and that they would try to find me to… to finish me off…" She choked on a sob and Fiyero cradled her in his arms like a baby and carried her over to the couch, sitting down and settling Cyara down in his lap.

She never once let go of him – her arms were still wrapped around his neck.

She sniffled. "So I… I ran. I thought… I didn't know what had happened to Mum and Dad, and I was so scared that… that if I would just go to the hospital, they would find me there and kill me... I panicked, and I ran. Some people along the way offered me shelter for the night and some food, and I tried to make my way to you, because… because you might be the only family member I have left, Yero – you were the only one of whom I was sure that he was still alive, and so I… I tried to find you…" She hiccupped. "And then I heard that Daddy died, and…" She burst out in a fresh wave of sobs and Fiyero held her tightly, rocking her back and forth softly. His eyes met Elphaba's over his sister's head, and he reached out to her with his free hand. She took it and squeezed it gently.

"Shh, it's okay," Fiyero tried to sooth his sister, attempting to console her. "Mum is still alive, Cy, and so are you. You have no idea how happy I am to see you – all the general told me in his letters was that you were missing, and you were most likely still underneath the remnants of the castle… I thought you were dead, Cyara!" He sniffled and Cyara gripped him even tighter.

"Are you Elphaba?" she asked in a small voice, still clinging to Fiyero, but noticing the green girl over his shoulder.

Elphaba smiled. "I am."

"This wasn't exactly how I had wanted the two of you to meet," Fiyero muttered, actually managing to elicit a soft chuckled from his little sister.

"Come on," he said to Cyara. "I'm going to take you to my dorm room, okay? We need to talk."

"We'll just go back to…" Elphaba began.

"No!" Fiyero's hand shot out and he grabbed her wrist – not hard enough to hurt her, but firm enough to keep her from moving.

"Come with us?" he asked her. "Please?"

She only hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"I'll go and tell Boq, Nessa and Gazilon that your sister is still alive," said Galinda softly. "I'm sure they would want to know that."

Fiyero flashed her a grateful smile over his sister's shoulder.

They made their way to Fiyero's dorm room, where Elphaba immediately took on some sort of mother role. She handed Cyara a shirt and a pair of pyjama trousers of Fiyero's to sleep in and ushered the girl into the bathroom to clean up a little. When the princess came out again, Elphaba wrapped her up in a blanket and planted her on the bed, where she immediately cuddled close to Fiyero, clinging to him.

They talked quietly and in the meantime, Elphaba moved into the small kitchen adjoining to Fiyero's bedroom and started preparing a meal for the younger girl.

Fiyero had one arm wrapped around Cyara's shoulders; and when Elphaba slowly sat down on his other side, he wrapped his other arm around her, squeezing her closer. She smiled a bit sadly at him before directing her attention towards the Vinkun princess.

Cyara was shaking, despite the blanket and the fact that she was burrowed into Fiyero's side; and Fiyero gently helped her up and into the bed, tucking her in tightly.

"You're safe now," he whispered. "Everything will be alright, Cy. I promise."

"I - I was thinking…" Cyara hiccupped with a sob. "That if I had died… or if _you _had died somehow… that… that one of the last things I said to you was that I was glad to see you going back to Shiz!"

She burst out in a fresh wave of sobs and Elphaba's heart broke watching brother and sister together. Fiyero crawled onto the bed with the young girl, wrapping his arms around her and allowing her to sob into his shoulder.

"I didn't mean it!" she cried. "You're my brother, and I love you, and I actually really _miss _you when you're gone all year, but –"

"Shh, Cy. I know. You were just teasing me." He hugged her tightly. "I love you, too, sis. You have no idea how happy I am to see that you are alright."

Elphaba was watching them silently, a soft look on her face. When he looked up, she caught his gaze and mouthed, "Do you need anything?"

He shook his head and mouthed back, "Thank you." She gestured that she was going to leave, and he nodded and threw her a sad smile. He would like for her to stay, but he was aware of the fact that she still needed to keep up appearances with Gazilon; and besides, he needed some time alone with his sister now.

Elphaba quietly tiptoed out of the room, softly closing it behind her before making her way back to her own dorm room, where she found Galinda, Nessa, Boq and Gazilon all sitting on various surfaces around the room.

All heads turned towards the green girl as she entered and she gave them a faint smile. "Cyara is alright," she reassured them tiredly. "She's been very scared and of course she's upset about her father's death and everything that has happened, but she's with Fiyero now. They'll both be fine."

Galinda heaved a sigh with relief, and Gazilon came forward to gently wrap Elphaba in a hug. "What about you?" he asked her. "Are _you _alright?"

She gave him a wry smile. "Just dandy. As always," she added, and he made a face at her.

"Fabala," Nessa said a bit irritably, "I really don't want you spending so much time with Fiyero anymore."

Elphaba stared at her sister incredulously. "What?"

Nessa crossed her arms and stuck her chin up defiantly. "No matter how good your cover is," she declared, "I want you to stop it. You're endangering us all."

"Nessa," said Elphaba, frowning, "_you _were the one who blurted it out to Boq and Galinda."

"Only because _you _were doing it!" Nessa insisted. "I'm not good at lying and making things up, you know that! If I slip up, it will be _your _fault!"

"Nessa, I can't just leave him now!" Elphaba protested, but Nessa stuck her nose up in the air.

"Yes, you can."

"Guys!" Galinda shouted. "Please!"

"It's up to you, Elphaba," Boq assured the green girl. "I mean, I can keep my mouth shut; and if need be, I'll help cover for you."

Elphaba smiled at him gratefully. "Thank you, Boq."

Gazilon squeezed her shoulders. "Me, too. You know that."

"And me!" Galinda chirped.

Nessa glared at all of them, scowling angrily. "I'm going to tell Father," she declared.

Elphaba's eyes widened. "Nessa, no!" she cried.

"Yes," the wheelchair-bound girl said stubbornly. "Someone clearly needs to teach you a lesson."

With that, she wheeled herself away, her head held high.

Elphaba was staring after her sister with wide eyes.

"She can't," she whispered. "If she writes to Father…"

Boq placed one hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry," he told her. "I'll talk her out of it." He quickly dashed after Nessa.

Elphaba moaned and sank down onto the edge of her bed, burying her face in her hands.

Gazilon rubbed her back comfortingly. "Don't worry, El," he tried to soothe her. "Nessarose will calm down. Everything will be alright."

"I almost slept with Fiyero tonight," Elphaba said, her voice muffled by her hands.

Gazilon frowned. "You mean you were planning on spending the night with him?"

"No." Elphaba lowered her hands to look at Gazilon wearily. "I mean that if Galinda hadn't interrupted us, you and I would have had a big problem on our wedding night."

Gazilon's eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly open. "Oh," he managed to squeak.

Galinda giggled at his reaction.

Elphaba sighed, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her dress. "Nessa is right," she said quietly. "It has to stop. I mean… what if Galinda hadn't interrupted us?"

"Then I would make sure there would be something sharp in my bedroom on our wedding night," Gazilon said immediately. "All it would take is a small cut in my arm, or something else people wouldn't immediately notice, and there you go – blood on the sheets. It's not that hard, El."

Elphaba stared at him in amazement. "Would you believe that I hadn't even though of that?" she said in wonder. "Why in Oz didn't I think of that?"

"Because you were too busy panicking over what you should do with Fiyero," Galinda said helpfully. She jumped off her bed and crawled down in front of her roommate. "Elphie, I love you and I want you to be happy."

"But I can't be." Elphaba looked at the blonde pleadingly. "Don't you see? Sooner or later, it has to stop, anyway. I'm supposed to marry Gazilon. We're supposed to create a permanent bond between the Glikkus and Munchkinland – I can't ever be with Fiyero, Glin. I have to live happily ever after with Gazilon, produce heirs…" She trailed off and shook her head. "It would be better for me to break it off now, rather than later, when we're even deeper into it."

Galinda had to admit that that sounded sensible.

"Just sleep on it," Gazilon advised the green girl. "It's late, anyway – I should go. We'll talk in the morning, alright?"

"Alright," Elphaba agreed miserably, and Gazilon planted a kiss on the top of her head before leaving the room.

Galinda looked at her friend. "Elphie?"

"I'm fine, Glin." Elphaba sighed and smiled weakly at her friend. "I'm just going to go to sleep now, okay? I'm really tired."

"Okay." Galinda watched her roommate worriedly as she disappeared into the bathroom and emerged again minutes later, dressed in her nightgown. Elphaba crawled into her bed and shut off the light.

"Goodnight, Glin."

"Goodnight, Elphie." Galinda sighed and dressed into her own nightgown.

Tomorrow, she promised herself, she would try to think of a solution for this problem that would make everyone happy.

* * *

"She did it."

Elphaba whirled around when Boq suddenly spoke from behind her, and she put one hand over her heart.

"Oz, Boq!" she cried. "You scared the living daylights out of me!"

Boq, however, was looking pale, sweaty, and very grim.

"I couldn't talk her out of it, Elphaba," he said bleakly. "She locked herself in her room and Horrible Morrible refused to let me in. I didn't see her again until this morning. She sent a letter to your father."

Elphaba's knees buckled at that and Gazilon quickly grabbed her arm to steady her.

"I'm really sorry, Elphaba," Boq said, his voice shaking a little.

Elphaba looked up at Gazilon.

"Maybe it won't be so bad," he tried to calm her down. "Maybe he'll just send you an angry letter to warn you to stop it, or something, and that will be all."

Elphaba hoped he was right.

But she doubted it.

* * *

**Dun dun duuuuun! *smirk***

**Please review! Favourite lines? :)**


	14. The sister

**AN: Update! I was trying to do this last night, but the site quit working so here it is now! I know I said this chapter would be dreadful... it's not. This is just the evil cliffy-thing leading up to the dreadful chapter, which will be the next one. *smirk***

**Elphaba'sGirl: Wow, that is complicated :O. But thanks for telling me! **

**Moreanswers24: Cyero... I like that :).**

**Caricature of a Witch: Hi ^_^. Good to have you back!**

**Silvine Fae Graycin: HI! OMG IT'S BEEN SUCH A LONG TIME! :D I really love the fact that you're back, though, and that you're still/again reading my stories! And yes, of course I remember - triplets it is ^^.**

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**Chapter 14. The sister**

Frex' reply to Nessa's letter was brief and very vague.

_My dear Nessarose,_

_Many things are going on here in Munchkinland and I need you home right away. It is of the utmost importance that you come back here as soon as possible._

_Please take the next carriage back to Munchkinland. We will talk about the matter you wrote me about once you get here._

_Your loving father,_

_Frexspar Thropp_

Nessa showed the letter to Elphaba, who did not feel reassured at all.

"Oh, Fabala, please," Nessa scoffed irritably when Elphaba voiced her concerns. "Something important is going on in Munchkinland and all you worry about is Father being mad about your little affair with Fiyero? You're so selfish!"

"Excuse me?" Elphaba fumed. "Nessa, you know as well as I do that whatever is going on in Munchkinland probably has something to do with the Glikkuns, and thus also with Gazilon and me! I'm just worried, that's all!"

Nessa stuck her chin up in the air. "Not everything is about you, Elphaba," she spat.

She turned around. "I'm going to pack, and I'm going to take the carriage to Munchkinland that will leave at noon," she called over her shoulder. "Bye, Elphaba." Then she wheeled herself away.

Elphaba gaped after her sister.

"Don't worry," Boq said, patting her arm comfortingly as he rushed past her. "I'll talk to her. Again," he sighed.

Elphaba crossed her arms, annoyed with her sister. "Don't bother, Boq," she said, scowling. "There's no reasoning with her at the moment."

"I know," Boq grumbled. "But she's my girlfriend – if anyone can reason with her, it's me. Maybe I can… I don't know."

Elphaba chuckled wearily. "Yeah. Good luck with that." She sighed and turned around, walking back in the direction of the History building.

"Hey, El," Gazilon greeted her as he slipped into the seat next to her. He kissed her and she smiled at him.

"Where are the others?" he asked when he realised that Elphaba was alone.

"Nessa, Boq and Galinda don't have History," Elphaba reminded him. "Fiyero is skipping class today – he doesn't want to leave Cyara alone."

"Which is completely understandable," Gazilon added, and Elphaba nodded.

"Nessa received a reply from Munchkinland today," she said, biting her lip. "Father writes that there's a lot going on in Munchkinland and he needs Nessa home right away. She's gone to her room to pack her things – she's leaving for Munchkinland at noon."

"Oh." Gazilon thought about that for a moment. "What do you think that means?"

She shrugged helplessly. "Governing trouble? An uprising because the Munchkins realised their Governor has made a deal with the terrorist enemy? Something to do with the Glikkus? I honestly have no idea whatsoever… and that's exactly what worries me. I don't know what's going on; and if I don't know what's happening, I can't make a plan to deal with it, and I hate that."

Gazilon wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," he said, trying to console her. "We'll figure it out and we'll deal with it. Promise."

She smiled weakly at him.

When class was over, she and Gazilon walked to the boys' dorm building together, where Gazilon went into his own room and Elphaba sneaked into Fiyero's.

It was quiet in his suite, and she frowned for a moment, slightly worried; but then she saw Fiyero lying on his side in the bed, fast asleep, with Cyara curled up in his arms like a small kitten. Elphaba smiled softly at the picture and moved into the kitchen to prepare them some lunch. When she had finished, she started moving around the room, humming softly as she cleaned up the mess Fiyero had made, keeping herself busy until one of them – or both of them – would wake up.

Cyara turned out to be the first to awaken – she stirred and opened her bright green eyes, blinking sleepily for a moment before noticing Elphaba.

"Oh," she said drowsily. "Hi, Elphaba." She yawned. "How long have you been here?"

Elphaba smiled and shrugged as she sat down in a chair on the side of the bed. "Not very long," she said. "I've just been cleaning and making you two some lunch, that's all." She eyed the Vinkun princess sympathetically. "How are you feeling?"

Cyara yawned again. "Better," she said, carefully untangling herself from her brother. She tilted her head a little to the side as she studied Fiyero. "I'm actually surprised he didn't wake me up," she muttered. "He snores like crazy, especially when he's stressed."

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."

Cyara giggled. "Ooh. So you have experience sleeping with Fiyero, then?" she said teasingly. "I knew it! Did you know that it took me the entire summer to get him to tell me that you two were actually _dating_ and not just friends?"

Elphaba smiled sadly. "Yes, well… it's complicated." She sighed.

"You mean with you and Gazilon, and the Glikkun terrorists?" Cyara asked knowingly. "Yeah, I heard. I'm really sorry for you, Elphaba – that must have been hard. Still is, probably."

Elphaba gaped at the small blonde girl, and Cyara giggled. "Fiyero told me," she admitted with a small grin. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, but… well, we're really bad at keeping secrets from one another," she said softly. "It may not always seem that way, but ever since we were younger, Yero and I have been very close. Growing up in a castle, we didn't have many other kids to play with. We played together, told each other secrets… we were inseparable. And sure," she said with a small laugh, "he's brainless, and obnoxious, and sometimes I feel sorely tempted to hit him so hard his brain would rattle in his head – if he had a brain, that is…"

Elphaba laughed.

"But I love him," Cyara said simply. "And… despite all that, we still have a good bond. We tell each other everything. He's my big brother, and no matter how stupid he can be sometimes, I really look up to him."

Elphaba smiled softly. "That's really sweet."

"Yeah," Fiyero suddenly said sleepily. He opened his eyes and smiled at his sister, then wrapped his arm around Cyara in a hug. "Love you too, sis."

Cyara smiled back at him.

He met Elphaba's eyes over his sister's blonde head. "Hi, Fae."

She smiled. "Hi."

He let go of Cyara and sat up, stretching before getting up and pulling Elphaba up from the chair she was sitting in. He drew her in his arms and kissed her.

Cyara made a soft 'aww'-sound.

"How are you?" Fiyero murmured as he rested his forehead against Elphaba's.

"I could ask you the same thing," she pointed out, and he chuckled.

"Touché. I'm okay, I guess." He looked at Cyara for a moment. "We both are. Sort of. Well, you know what I mean."

She nodded, her eyes filled with understanding. "I do."

He sat back down on the bed, pulling her to sit beside him. "What about you?"

"I'm fine," she replied automatically, before remembering the whole situation with Nessa. She sighed. "Or, well… Nessa wrote to Father," she said quietly. "About us."

Fiyero sat up straight in alarm. "Wait. What?" he asked incredulously.

Elphaba nodded, staring down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. "Yes. She… she thinks it's wrong, what we're doing, and… and she told Father. He sent her a note back today, telling her to get back to Munchkinland immediately. Nessa thinks it's about governing business, but to be perfectly honest, I don't trust it at all." She looked up at Fiyero. "You and Cyara might want to consider getting out of here," she said softly. "I think… well, you were leaving for the Vinkus anyway, weren't you? For your father's funeral?"

Fiyero nodded. "It's in three days," he said. "We were planning on heading back to the Vinkus tomorrow morning. But… you'd come with us, wouldn't you?" he asked her worriedly. "I mean…"

She looked down. "I know I promised you I'd be at the funeral," she said softly. "And I'm really sorry, but… Yero, I can't. I don't know what my father is going to do now that he knows, but honestly? I wouldn't be surprised if he would allow those Glikkun terrorists to kill me – or worse, kill the ones I love. I can't let that happen. I need you two to go back to the Vinkus alone, and I'm going to stay here and face whatever punishment he undoubtedly has in mind for me."

Cyara was staring at the green girl with wide eyes, and Fiyero was shaking his head fervently.

"No," he declared almost angrily. "Elphaba, I'm not going to let you do that. I already lost my father." His voice broke and he took a deep breath in an attempt to compose himself. "I'm not going to lose you, too."

Elphaba looked at him, a mix of sadness and determination in her eyes. "Yero –"

"If I have to tie you down and kidnap you to the Vinkus, I will," he threatened. "But I'm not leaving you alone. You're coming with us, whether you like it or not. So are Galinda, Boq and Gazilon. It's going to be fine, Fae," he said, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close. "We're all going to be fine."

She buried her face in his shoulder.

* * *

"Father?" Nessa called out after the driver had helped her out of the carriage and into her wheelchair. As the man unloaded her suitcases, she wheeled herself to the front door.

It opened before she could knock and there was Frexspar Thropp, standing tall and regal as always; but there was a relief in his eyes that she could not quite place.

"Nessa, my precious girl," he said, bending down to hug her tightly – tighter than usual, she couldn't help but notice. "Oh, you have no idea how happy I am that you are here, my darling. Quickly, come inside – I'll get the maid to bring us some tea and then we can talk, yes?"

Nessa, bewildered by Frex's strange behaviour, obediently followed him into the house and to the sitting room, where he lowered himself onto the couch in order to level his face with hers.

He took her hands in his. "Nessa, sweet girl," he said, "your letter has been intercepted."

Nessa's eyes widened. "The letter in which I told you about… about Fabala?" She swallowed. "And Fiyero?"

Frex nodded solemnly. "The Glikkuns have spies everywhere," he muttered. "When they saw this letter came from Shiz and was addressed to me, they figured it had something to do with our agreement to bond the Glikkus and Munchkinland through Elphaba and Gazilon. They opened it and they read your letter, Nessa. They were absolutely furious."

Nessa's eyes were still wide and her lower lip was trembling. "And… and what now?" she asked shakily. "What is going to happen?"

Frexspar sighed. "I had to pull a lot of strings to make sure they didn't break our agreement," he said. "I promised them we'd find some other way to keep the bond between our provinces strong; but I lost all the conditions I gave them that they had agreed to honour, Nessa. Remember what I asked them in exchange for setting up Elphaba and Gazilon?"

Nessa suddenly felt very faint. "To refrain from attacking Shiz," she whispered, realisation slowly dawning on her, and her eyes filled with horror. "That's why you wanted me back here, isn't it? They're going to attack Shiz!"

Frex nodded sadly. "I persuaded them to let me get you out of there first," he explained. "They agreed because you had been good enough to send that letter to warn me about your sister's disobedience, and the Glikkuns thought that maybe you could come in handy for our agreement – maybe _you _could be married to some Glikkun nobleman to keep our relations safe. You're my darling, Nessa. I couldn't just leave you there."

"But you could leave Fabala there?" Nessa asked incredulously. "All of my friends? _Boq_? You know Boq, father – he's very kind and honourable. I thought you liked him! And Elphaba – she's your _daughter_! How could you do this?"

"I didn't have a choice!" Frex snapped. "They're going to do it, anyway; and saving you was my highest priority! I'm very sorry about Boq, my precious girl," he tried to appease her, gently touching her arm, "but I was left no choice."

Nessa's eyes were flaming and she yanked her arm from his grip. "There's always a choice!" she yelled at him. "You could warn us all! Make sure Shiz would be evacuated beforehand!"

"And destroy my chances of an alliance with the Glikkus?" Frex shook his head. "Never."

"When?" Nessa asked in a trembling voice.

Frex looked away.

She slammed her fist down onto the arm of her chair, making Frex snap his head back at her in shock – never before had he seen his darling daughter so enraged. "_When_, Father?!"

He looked at her calmly. "Tomorrow morning," he said. "When the first classes of the day have started."

"No," whispered Nessa. "You can't do this, Father. I won't let you." She started wheeling herself in the direction of the door. "I'm going to find a carriage _right now_," she said angrily, "and I'm going to Shiz. To warn them. I don't care if I have to drive all through the night. Those are my _friends_, Father. My boyfriend, my own sister!"

"Nessarose," Frex spoke angrily, "your sister has chosen to be disobedient and to risk all those lives, and now she has to pay for it. I am deeply ashamed of her actions and believe me when I say that I won't shed a tear if she dies."

"You never would have!" Nessa shouted. "You've always been ashamed of her! You've hated her from the beginning, and yet I never understood why, or even really saw it, until now! You don't care about all those hundreds of lives being lost… right now I am ashamed of _you_, Father! I never thought you could be so heartless! You're a… a monster!"

Frex paled visibly and he grabbed Nessa's chair, glaring at her threateningly.

"Now you listen to me very carefully, Nessarose," he said in a low voice. "All of this is your sister's fault. Your sister's and Gazilon's, since you told me that he actually encouraged her into doing this. She deserves to die for this. They all do. If you're going to blame anyone for this happening, blame her, because it is her fault."

"No!" Nessa shook her head wildly. "Father, just because she was disobedient, doesn't mean she deserves to _die_!" she pleaded. "Please!"

Frex raised his chin. "I have made my decision."

Nessa stared at him silently for a while. Then she turned around and wheeled herself to the door. "Then I'm going back to Shiz. If I have to warn them myself, I will."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am!" Nessa didn't look back again, and so Frex took her completely by surprise when he suddenly lifted her from her chair and started carrying her up the stairs.

She struggled and swatted at him. "Father! Put me down!"

He brought her to her bedroom and set her down on the bed.

"I'm very sorry, Nessarose," he said. "But I can't let you do this. You would endanger everything."

Her eyes widened. "But Father!" she pleaded with him. "Elphaba is your _daughter_! Please!"

"She is not my daughter," he spat. "She is a disgrace, a disgusting smudge of green dirt on our family's name. What she has done now exceeds all boundaries and I swear to you, Nessa, that if she and that filthy Winkie Prince don't die in the explosion themselves, I'm personally going to drive over to Shiz to fix the problem of them still being alive!"

With that, he slammed the door closed behind him.

"Father!" Nessa fell off the bed and struggled to drag herself over to the door by her arms, trying the doorknob.

Locked.

"Father, please!" she cried. "You can't do this! Please, don't do this!"

No reply came.

"Father!" Nessa screamed, pounding on the door with her fists. She let her head fall forward, her forehead resting against the thick wood of the door.

This wasn't Elphaba's fault, she realised. It was her own. If she hadn't written that letter to Frex, none of this would have happened.

If her sister, or her boyfriend, or her friends would die… it would be Nessa's fault.

She curled into herself on the floor, crying. What had she done?


	15. The attack

**AN: MUAHAHAHAHAHA! BOW BEFORE YOUR QUEEN OF CLIFFIES! *points scepter at you all***

**You were all right to dread this chapter, and everyone of you who said they trusted me... well... let's just say I didn't promise you a happy ending this time, did I? *cackles***

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**Chapter 15. The attack**

"So what time does our carriage leave?" Galinda asked as they were walking to their first class the next morning. "To the Vinkus, I mean?"

"This afternoon around four," Fiyero replied. "I hope you can sleep in a carriage, because we won't arrive in the Vinkus until tomorrow morning at dawn."

"Sure, no problem," Gazilon said lightly.

Galinda grimaced and huffed softly, but didn't protest.

"Which class do you have now?" asked Cyara.

"Me and Elphaba have Law," Fiyero told her.

"That's supposed to be 'Elphaba and me'," Boq corrected him helpfully.

Fiyero glared at the Munchkin. "Gee, thanks, _Biq_," he said sarcastically.

Boq sighed deeply.

"Give him a break, guys," said Galinda, putting her arm around Boq's shoulders. "His girlfriend just left for Munchkinland for no real reason!"

Elphaba's face fell. "I still don't trust it," she muttered.

Galinda waved a finger at her. "Don't be so distrustifying, Elphie. What do you think is going to happen?"

Her arm was still around Boq's shoulders, and the Munchkin looked about ready to faint. He honestly did love Nessa, impossible as she could be at times; but he still did, and probably always would, have a soft spot for Galinda.

Elphaba sighed. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see," she said reluctantly. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if my father's assassins are on their way here to finish me off right now," she added sarcastically.

Fiyero frowned at her. "Don't say such things."

"Yeah." Gazilon wrapped his arm around her waist and squeezed it. "You'll be fine, El."

Elphaba looked down – she still felt uncomfortable with Gazilon touching her like this, especially when Fiyero was walking not a metre away from her. She looked up and when she saw that he was looking at her, she gave him an apologetic look. Fiyero just smiled a bit sadly at her.

"You know? It's incredible that I ever really thought Elphie could love Gazilon," Galinda said, lowering her voice so that no-one would overhear. "I mean… Elphie, you and Fiyero just share these _looks _all the time, it's like you're having telepathetic conversations…"

"Telepathic," Boq corrected her.

She scowled at him and he quickly closed his mouth.

"…and I have no idea what you're saying, but it's adorable," Galinda decided. "Just the fact that you can walk here and look like you're being all mushy with Gazilon, and yet you're sharing secret looks with Fiyero. Honestly, I think it's impressive."

Elphaba chuckled weakly. "Thank you?" she said, making it sound like a question, because she wasn't really sure if it should be considered a compliment.

Galinda obviously thought so, because she beamed at her roommate. "You're welcome."

"Are you coming to class with us?" Boq asked Cyara, but the Vinkun princess shook her head.

"I'm just walking with you," she said. "Galinda doesn't have any classes this morning, so she offered to take me for tea at the café here on campus."

Fiyero smiled at the blonde. "That's nice of you, Glin."

Galinda shrugged modestly. "You know me," she said, tossing her hair. "I'm always nice."

"I have a Psychology class," Boq said.

"And I'm joining Elphaba in Law," Gazilon added. "You know, because I'm the perfect boyfriend and I can't stand being away from my girlfriend for too long, so I accompany her to all of her classes. Aren't I sweet?"

Elphaba looked up at him in wonder. "And all this time, here I was thinking that you were too nice to be capable of sarcasm," she said in amazement.

Gazilon chuckled. "I have my moments."

"Lunch together?" Boq suggested, and the others nodded.

"We'll meet you all at the Primrose Café after class," said Galinda, linking her arm with Cyara's and pulling the other girl along. She gave the others a wave. "Bye!"

"I have to go left here," Boq said. "Later." He disappeared around a corner.

Elphaba, now walking between Gazilon and Fiyero, wrinkled her nose. "This is awkward."

"What?" Fiyero asked innocently. "Walking in between your ex-boyfriend who really isn't your ex-boyfriend but your secret current boyfriend, and your current boyfriend who is actually your fake boyfriend? Why would that be awkward?"

Elphaba elbowed him in the side, making him double over.

"Oz, Fae!" he said, but he was grinning.

Elphaba smirked at him. "You had it coming."

They entered their classroom and sat down in their usual seats, pulling out the things they would need for the lecture.

In retrospect, Elphaba felt like she should have noticed something, anything, that signalled what was about to happen; but the truth was that there was nothing that gave anything away about the upcoming disaster.

Class was nearing its end when suddenly, there was some loud noise coming from outside… noise that sounded like an explosion.

Elphaba shot straight up in her seat, her eyes wide, the blood quickly draining from her face. "Was that…"

More noise, closer this time.

"Get onto the floor!" the teacher screamed as he did just that; but before any of the students could properly move, there was a third explosion.

It seemed to happen in slow motion and at the same time, it all happened very fast. The wall behind the teacher seemed to move towards them; then it exploded in smaller pieces. The ceiling was brought down and the noise, both of the collapsing building and the screaming students, was deafening.

Fiyero was vaguely aware of the fact that he had been blown backwards by the impact and that his back had hit the wall with a smack. He blinked, but he couldn't see anything – there was dust everywhere. He looked to his side and saw shadows of other students, most of them staying down on the floor. There was blood and there was rubble, and he felt dizzy and disoriented for a few moments.

When the dust cleared somewhat, he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around him, assessing the damage.

His stomach immediately churned and he felt like he was going to throw up.

It was complete chaos. There was debris everywhere; chunks of the ceiling had come down, parts of the walls had been blown away. He realised in horror that he could see straight into what once was another classroom, and that the two floors above this one had come down entirely in that spot, crashing down onto the room and part of the hallway… and all the students in it. He looked up, realising that the same thing could happen in this room. If the foundation of the building gave away, they would all be buried in rubble.

He turned around, coughing because of the dust still lingering and cursing softly when he remembered his conversation with Elphaba the day before. He felt guilty. Maybe he should have taken her predictions about her father – and, apparently, the Glikkuns – wanting revenge on her more seriously.

"Fae?" he croaked. He didn't see her. What he _did _see, didn't really settle his nerves; there were some students that had been lucky, like Fiyero himself, but most of them were in a much worse condition. Around him, students were picking up their classmates, helping them to their feet and out of the building. There seemed to be blood everywhere and Fiyero realised in horror how many people must still be buried under the rubble.

"Fae?" he called again, more insistent this time.

"Fiyero?"

That wasn't Elphaba. He turned around and saw Gazilon approaching him, covered in dust. He was limping slightly and there was some blood trickling down his face from a cut in his forehead; but other than that, he seemed to be okay.

"I can't find her, either," Gazilon said, concern etched onto his face.

Fiyero swallowed, trying not to think about what that could mean. "We'll find her," he said, though it wasn't clear whether he was trying to reassure himself or Gazilon.

Both boys turned around again, their eyes searching the rubble for a hint of green. Gazilon started digging in the debris and Fiyero slowly made his way back to where he thought their seats had been before the explosion.

"Fae?" he called hoarsely. "Elphaba?" Students rushed past him, making sure to get out of here before the rest of the building would come down.

The roof creaked dangerously, and Fiyero looked up for a moment. It wouldn't hold out for much longer. He had to find Elphaba and get the hell out of here.

Then he caught a flash of green, and his heartbeat sped up. "Fae!" He fell down on his knees next to the slender, green arm sticking out from underneath the debris, and he started removing the heavy chunks of stone, revealing the rest of her.

There was an ugly-looking wound on her temple, blood trickling down the side of her face. Her right arm was positioned in an odd angle – it was most likely broken – and her eyes were closed. She wasn't moving.

Fiyero tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but it wouldn't go away. He gently cradled her in his arms, trying to wake her. "Fae?" he tried, brushing some hair away from her forehead. "Come on, sweetheart, wake up."

She didn't move. For as far as Fiyero could see, her chest wasn't even rising or falling. She was either unconscious, knocked out by the debris flying straight at her; or she was…

He shook his head and lifted her up in his arms, rising to his feet. Dust fell down from the still croaking ceiling and Fiyero sped up.

"Gazilon!" he cried. "I found her!"

The other boy came running towards him. When he saw Elphaba, a mix of relief and concern crossed his face.

"Is she alright?"

"I don't know," Fiyero said, clenching his teeth. "We have to get out of here!"

Gazilon nodded quickly and hurried in front of Fiyero, clearing the way for the other boy as they ran towards the door – or what was left of it. Most students were already gone; the ones that were still in the room were dead, Fiyero realised as he looked around him. Wide open, but unseeing, eyes everywhere. Icy cold shivers ran down his spine and he felt bile rising in his throat – he had to swallow repeatedly to prevent himself from throwing up.

They reached the hallway.

"Help!" A girl was sitting on the floor, her foot caught beneath a heavy piece of debris. She was desperately trying to free herself, looking up at the ceiling fearfully, but she couldn't get herself loose.

"Please, someone help me!" she cried, yanking at her leg.

"There's no time," Gazilon insisted when he saw the look on Fiyero's face, but the prince shook his head.

"We can't just leave her here!" he hissed.

The ceiling made a dangerous noise and Fiyero gently but firmly pushed Elphaba into Gazilon's hands.

"Go," he said. "Get her to safety. Take her to the hospital."

"What about you?" Gazilon asked as he tightened his grip on the green girl.

"I'll be right behind you," Fiyero promised, pushing Gazilon in the direction of the courtyard. "_Go_! Keep her safe!"

Gazilon hesitated, but then he nodded, turned around and started running.

Fiyero fell down on his knees next to the girl, pushing the pieces of debris off her leg. She was crying with relief now.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" she sobbed, scrambling to her feet.

"Go!" Fiyero yelled at her, and she ran off. He leapt to his own feet, ready to follow Gazilon.

A loud crashing noise and part of the ceiling collapsed, blocking the way in front of him. He could still see Gazilon. The other boy stopped running and turned around, looking at the Vinkun prince worriedly for a moment, then up at the ceiling again.

Fiyero tried to climb over the debris. "Run!" he shouted at Gazilon. "Get out of here!"

Gazilon, however, didn't move, staying just outside the danger zone, but still close enough to see everything that was going on. He knew Elphaba needed to get to a hospital, but he had to know that Fiyero would get out safely first. She would kill him if he let anything happen to the prince.

Fiyero was clambering over the debris and just for a moment, Gazilon was sure that he was going to make it.

Then the ceiling came crashing down and the entire building collapsed on top of every student still left behind… including Fiyero.

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**Feel free to leave me a murderous review. You all know how much I love those :).**


	16. The aftermath

**AN: You're not going to like me after this chapter - but honestly, guys, it just wouldn't be realistic if everyone survived.**

**PetisaSerasVos: haha, that is just amazing!**

**BlueD: um... no, my full name is not Madison xD. I don't have a full name. It's just Maddy.**

**Severussnapefan123: you're the only one remembering that :P yes, I did say that.**

**The Wizard Of Wicked: well... um... *shuffles uncomfortably* I might be...**

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**Chapter 16. The aftermath**

The first thing Elphaba became aware of was a sharp pain in her head that made her gasp. Her body felt heavy and numb and everything hurt; and for a moment, she wondered what in Oz had happened to her.

Then she remembered the explosions, and she suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she tried not to wince at the little light that filled the room – it hurt her eyes. She was in a dark room, lying on a bed. When she blinked a few times, she could distinguish Gazilon sitting in the armchair next to the bed.

"Gaz?" she croaked, and he immediately leapt to his feet.

"Elphaba!" When he came closer, stepping into the small beam of moonlight that shone into the room, she could see that he had been crying.

He took her hand, gently squeezing it. "Oz, El… I'm so glad you're awake," he said hoarsely. "It's been hours, and you didn't wake up… the nurses weren't even sure if you ever would."

She brought her hand up to her painful head, only to feel a bandage there. As she slowly became aware of her surroundings and of her own body again, she realised her right arm was wrapped up in a tight bandage, as was her lower left leg. They both hurt, too, but that wasn't the most important thing right now.

"Where are the others?" she whispered, struggling to sit up, but Gazilon gently pushed her down again.

Her anguished eyes met his. "Are they alright?"

He hesitated.

_He hesitated._

A sense of dread washed over her.

"Galinda and Cyara are fine," he said quietly. "They were going to have tea on campus, but then Galinda remembered a nice café in town and they went there instead – thank Oz. They were far away when the attack came and they didn't even know about it until they got back here. They don't have a scratch."

Elphaba closed her eyes, relieved; but at the same time, there was something in Gazilon's voice that told her that not everyone had been so lucky.

"They're volunteering in helping the other victims of the attack," Gazilon continued. "It's complete chaos out there. There were three explosions, bringing down a huge part of the university. The victims have been brought into classrooms and dormitories and nurses and doctors are everywhere, but there's just not enough of them to treat everyone. You've been checked over by a nurse briefly, someone bandaged up your wounds, and then they told me to take you back here to my dorm room because there was no room for you at the hospital. The hospital is completely full, anyway – all emergency cases that needed surgery or are hurt extremely badly."

Elphaba listened in complete silence, horror filling her when the reality of what had happened hit her.

"You broke your arm," Gazilon continued, "and you've ripped some ligaments in your ankle, too. They had to stitch up the wound on your temple and they put a bandage around it – you've got a mild concussion. You should be fine, though." He squeezed her hand. "Thank Oz."

"Gaz…" she whispered. "What about Boq and Fiyero?"

Gazilon looked down, avoiding her gaze and not saying anything.

Elphaba tried her hardest not to panic. "Gazilon?"

He closed his eyes for a moment.

"The Psychology building was where the first explosion took place," he whispered. "The first explosion was also the worst one. The entire building caved in immediately, before any of the people inside could even attempt to escape." He lowered his gaze. "No-one who was in that building survived."

Elphaba's eyes were wide. "Are you… are you saying that Boq…"

Gazilon nodded, tears in his light brown eyes. "I'm sorry, Elphaba."

She clamped her free hand over her mouth, horrified. Tears filled her eyes.

She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to know the answer to the next question, but she had to ask. "What… what about Fiyero?" she choked out.

Gazilon reached out again to squeeze her good arm sympathetically. "He's alive," he assured her.

Elphaba's tears spilled over and she let out a sob, closing her eyes for a moment as relief washed over her. "Where is he?" she whispered.

Gazilon sighed. "In his dorm room. Glin and Cyara are taking care of him." He looked at Elphaba and his eyes met hers.

"El," he said softly. "He… he and I found you, and he tried to carry you outside, to safety. We were taking you outside when there was a girl, trapped under some rubble, screaming for help…" He swallowed. "Honestly? I wanted to leave her there in order to make it safely out myself, along with you and Fiyero; but Fiyero insisted on helping the girl. He handed you over to me and told me to make sure you were safe, and then he helped that girl. She lives, she got out safely, but Fiyero… the ceiling collapsed on top of him, El."

Elphaba's face was pale and she was shaking her head frantically. "No."

"They… they don't think he's going to make it," Gazilon whispered sadly. "I'm sorry, Elphaba. I really am."

The world started spinning and her face suddenly went ashen, almost grey. Gazilon quickly grabbed a vase from the bedside table and held Elphaba's hair back as she retched into it, the sounds of her throwing up alternated with sobs escaping her lips.

When she was finished, Gazilon gently dabbed her face with a wet, cold cloth and handed her a glass of water. Her teeth chattered against the glass and she nearly choked on the water a few times; but by the time she lowered the glass and he took it back from her, she did look a bit calmer.

"I want to see him."

He sighed. "El…"

"No, Gazilon." Her dark brown eyes were piercing as they bored into his. "I'm going to see him with or without your help, so you might as well come with me to make sure I don't topple over."

"You're not supposed to –"

"I don't care! Oz dammit, Gazilon, just take me to him!" she shouted, suddenly frustrated. "It's my fault he's hurt in the first place! It's my fault that Boq is dead, and… and all those people…" Another sob escaped her throat. "It's my fault…"

"It's not." He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her gently. "El, it's not your fault. Not at all."

"How can you say that?" She angrily pulled away from him, trying to blink back her tears, but failing. "Gazilon, if I hadn't secretly been with Fiyero all this time, none of this would have happened! Boq would be alive, and Fiyero would be safe…"

"Fiyero would be unhappy," Gazilon corrected her.

"But safe," she added.

He shook his head. "It's not your fault," he said. "It wasn't fair of anyone to ask this of us in the first place… and besides – if Nessa hadn't written to your father…"

Elphaba shook her head frantically. "It's not her fault," she said in a choked voice. "She just did what she thought what's best. It's my fault. Mine, and mine alone." She struggled to sit up. "Now help me get up."

He sighed, but obeyed, helping her to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. He went to fetch his own robe and draped it around her shoulders to keep her warm before supporting her as she rose to her feet.

"Don't put pressure on your left ankle," he warned her, and she nodded. She started hopping, carefully, slowly. Her head felt like it might burst, but that wasn't the most important thing right now. The most important thing was that she would get to Fiyero.

Painfully slowly, she and Gazilon made their way through the hallway and towards Fiyero's dorm room. People hurried through the hallways every now and then, carrying food, water or medical supplies. The dormitories had been spared, but most of the university buildings had at least partially collapsed because of the explosions.

Gazilon knocked on the door and Galinda's voice called, "Come in!" When he pushed open the door and gently helped Elphaba inside, Galinda looked up from where she was stirring something in a bowl. Her eyes widened.

"Oh, Elphie!" she cried, putting the bowl down hurriedly and all but running towards her friend, gingerly hugging her. "Thank Oz you're alright!"

"Elphaba?" Cyara poked her head out from the bathroom and smiled sadly when she saw the green girl. "Hey. Good to see that you're okay."

Elphaba hugged her roommate back tightly, burying her face in Galinda's shoulder for a moment.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry about Boq, and Fiyero, and… everything. Everyone."

Galinda hugged her a bit tighter. "Me, too, Elphie," she said softly. "But we'll make it through. Don't worry. We'll be fine."

She let go of Elphaba and the green girl slowly made her way over to the bed, with Gazilon supporting her. Once she had reached it, he turned around to usher Galinda and Cyara into the adjoining sitting room to give Elphaba some time alone with Fiyero.

She gingerly reached out to touch his forehead. There were stitches just above his left eyebrow, and there was a bandage around his head as well. His eyes were closed and he looked paler than she had ever seen him. He looked like he was already gone.

A sob escaped her lips. "Fiyero…"

She crawled onto the bed with him, wrapping her good arm around him and burying her face in his neck.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, tears leaking from her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Yero, it's my fault… it's all my fault. I'm sorry… please don't die. I promise I'll do anything – I'll listen to my father next time, I'll marry Gazilon, I'll leave you alone for the rest of your life, you won't have to see me ever again, I promise… just don't die. Yero… please, please don't die…"

Violent, but silent sobs racked her body, and she was trembling all over. "I'm so sorry…" She didn't seem to be capable of saying anything else. "Fiyero, please… _please_… I love you…" She choked on a sob. "Just come back," she begged him quietly. "Please. If not for me, then for your mother, and for Cyara… they already lost their husband and father, they can't lose you, too… not because of me. Please, Fiyero…"

"Elphie?"

Galinda stood in the doorway with Cyara right next to her. Both of them were slightly shocked to see Elphaba like this, but they tried not to let it show.

Elphaba, however, didn't even acknowledge their presence. She just burrowed into Fiyero's side, still crying and begging him not to die, to come back, to forgive her.

"Elphaba…" Cyara made her way into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed, placing her hand on Elphaba's shoulder.

The green girl looked up, her face stained with tears; and when she saw the tears standing in Cyara's eyes, she started sobbing even harder.

"I'm so sorry, Cyara!" she cried, burying her face in a pillow. "It's all my fault!"

"Of course it's not your fault." Cyara gently stroked the older girl's hair. Galinda, meanwhile, made her way over to the other side of the bed and sat down on the edge, reaching out to take Elphaba's hand in her own.

"It's the Glikkuns' fault," Cyara continued softly. "Not yours, Elphaba."

"And if you really want to blame someone for the Glikkuns finding out about you and Fiyero, blame Nessa," Galinda said fiercely. "She's the one who told your father!"

Elphaba shook her head, which was still buried in the pillow. "There wouldn't have been anything to tell if I hadn't done it!" she shouted, wrapping her good arm around herself and curling up in the foetal position, her head on Fiyero's chest. She could hear his heartbeat, which calmed her down just the tiniest bit. He wasn't dead yet. There was still hope for him.

But all those other students…

She was a murderer. Her father had been right all this time – she was a curse, an aberration, she only brought pain and death to the people around her.

Cyara was still stroking her hair. "He'll be okay," she said in a soothing tone of voice. "Elphaba, Yero will be okay. I've known him all my life and he's the most stubborn person I've ever met. He'll pull through. He would never leave us like this."

"I've been so weak," Elphaba whispered. "If I had only been able to stay strong, to stand my ground… Fiyero would have never known. None of you would have known about what was going on. It would have broken his heart, yes, and mine, too, but… but at least he'd be safe. At least he'd be alive. He and all those other students…"

"Yes, and then what?" Galinda asked sharply. "Then the Glikkuns would have attacked a university in Gillikin instead. Or in the Emerald City. Maybe they would have killed my parents, or my friends back home. Maybe they would have killed Nessa and Boq's friends in Munchkin City. They're terrorists, Elphie. No matter what you would have done, it would have ended in pain, death and bloodshed, anyway. And I want you to stop blaming yourself for this," she said, a fiery look in her blue eyes as she grabbed Elphaba's chin and forced the raven-haired girl to look up at her. "None of this is your fault. Just like it's not your fault that your mother died, or that Nessa was crippled. Elphie, the only reason why you believe all those things is because your father put them in your head; but they're not true. None of them are true. You are an amazing person, Elphaba Thropp; and if, Oz forbid, Fiyero should die… then at least he will have known the truth. At least he knows you love him, and you gave him the chance to be with you. He loves you, too, Elphie. So much. Knowing that you were safe was the most important thing for him."

Elphaba remained quiet for a long while. The girls just sat there for a few minutes; Elphaba still curled up on the bed, with Galinda holding her hand tightly and Cyara gently stroking her long, black hair.

"You need to sleep," Cyara said softly after a while. "That nurse said you need a lot of rest."

"I'll ask Gazilon to take you back to his room," Galinda offered, but Elphaba immediately shot up.

"No!"

"Elphie –"

"I'm staying here," the green girl declared, curling up on the bed once more.

Galinda sighed. "Elphie, you can't –"

"Let her," Cyara said, interrupting the blonde.

Galinda closed her mouth, sighed again, and nodded. "Alright. Fine." She grabbed a blanket and tucked Elphaba in, hugging her gently for a moment. "You'll be fine, Elphie. And so will Fiyero."

When the girls came back into the sitting room where Gazilon still was, he looked up at them. "And?"

"She thinks it's her fault," Cyara said quietly, sitting down in a chair. "She blames herself, she feels horrible… it's awful to watch." She sighed, running her fingers through her long, light blonde hair. "I wish he would just get better," she whispered, tears springing to her own green eyes now. "I lost my father, and now…"

"He'll live," Galinda tried to comfort her. "Fiyero will be fine, Cyara."

The Vinkun princess heaved a shaky sigh. "I hope so."

"Elphie is staying here," Galinda told Gazilon. "Do you want to stay as well?"

Gazilon nodded. "I really don't want to be alone tonight."

Galinda gave him a sympathetic smile. "We can sleep on the couch, or on the floor," she said, looking around her. "We just shouldn't leave Elphie or Fiyero alone right now."

Gazilon rose to his feet. "I'll go find some blankets," he offered.

He moved into the bedroom and his heart broke when he saw Elphaba and Fiyero this way. He was still unconscious and she was as close to him as she could possibly be, her cheek pressed against his chest, dried tears still on her face. She was asleep by now, for which he was grateful – she needed her rest and he knew how hard it must be for her to just relax and go to sleep right now.

He quietly took some blankets from the closet and tiptoed back to the sitting room, where he would set up camp with Galinda and Cyara.


	17. The awakening

**AN: Here I am with yet another update!**

**I also just want to let you know that I wrote a cute, fluffy one-shot the other day - it's called _Haven't met you yet_, after the Michael Bublé song. It's the first nice and light thing I've written in forever. Not sure why that is, but I'm glad I can still (or again) do it.**

**Also, sorry for not having posted the CDF sequel yet. I'm working on it, I promise, but uni is a little crazy right now. Bachelor thesis, and all.**

**Silvine Fae Graycin: thank you. That really is a great compliment to me :).**

**BlueD: that's fine :P. I understand. Unfortunately for you, I don't have a full name *smirk*.**

**Yes, I killed Boq. And I'm sorry for that. But 1) it just wouldn't be realistic to have them all survive, and 2) I think Nessa needed a push to stand up to Frex and do the right thing. Alright, this was more of a shove than a push, but still.**

**Hope you'll all be happy again after this one!**

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**Chapter 17. The awakening**

When Gazilon went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, he found Elphaba and Fiyero still in the same position on the bed.

Fiyero was still unconscious and hadn't moved at all. Elphaba was sleeping fitfully, crying and whimpering in her sleep, clutching Fiyero's shirt with her free hand. When she accidentally moved so that she was lying on her broken arm, she snapped awake with a cry of pain.

"Shh, it's okay," Gazilon tried to calm her down. He carefully helped her to sit up and took the sling the nurse had given him from the nightstand, positioning her broken arm in it. "Be careful with that."

"I was asleep," she muttered, running her fingers through her hair. "It's not like I did it on purpose."

He flashed her a smile. "I know." He handed her a handkerchief, which she wordlessly used to dry the tears on her face with. He didn't mention it and neither did she.

He made her drink some water and then he took the glass from her and looked at her. "Come on," he said. "I'm taking you back to my room."

"No!" She inched closer to Fiyero, staring at Gazilon with wide, accusing eyes. "I'm staying here!"

He sighed. "El, this isn't good for you," he tried, but she shook her head.  
"And you think me sleeping alone in a bed far away from him will be good for me?" she wanted to know. "I'm staying here, Gazilon. You can't make me leave."

He looked at her for a long time.

She set her jaw in determination, staring back at him without wavering.

He sighed. She must be the most stubborn girl in the world.

"Fine," he complied. "But call me or Galinda when anything is wrong, okay?"

She nodded and he went into the bathroom. When he emerged again a few minutes later, she had fallen asleep again, her face buried in the crook of Fiyero's neck.

He sighed and went back into the sitting room. Galinda, who was sleeping on the floor, raised her head to look at him.

"How is she?" she whispered.

Gazilon shrugged, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "The same. So is he."

Galinda bit her lip. "I wish there was something we could do."

"So do I, Glin." Gazilon lay back down on the floor under his own blanket, staring up at the ceiling. "So do I."

Galinda sat up straight when she heard a sound coming from the other room. "What was that?"

"Elphaba," Gazilon muttered. "I think she's having nightmares."

Galinda's heart broke. "Oh, Elphie…" She pushed her blanket off her and sat up. "I'm going to check on her."

"I'll do it," said Gazilon, rising to his feet. "You go back to sleep, Glin. You need it."

She flashed him a grateful smile and lay back down again, and Gazilon obediently went into the other room to see if Elphaba was okay – even though he had been in there only minutes before.

Her face was scrunched up, there were tears falling from her eyes and she had her entire body wrapped around Fiyero's, as if she were afraid he would vanish the moment she let go of him.

And then, just as Gazilon made to move towards the bed to wake Elphaba up, it happened.

Fiyero opened his eyes.

Gazilon almost missed it, but when he glanced at Fiyero's face for a moment, he saw the other boy's eyes slowly opening. His own eyes widened and he gaped at Fiyero for a moment.

The prince blinked a few times and he tried to move, only to find himself hindered by something. Only then did he realise that Elphaba was sleeping on his chest.

"Fiyero?" Gazilon whispered, and the prince's eyes snapped up to meet Gazilon's.

"Is she alright?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

A grin slowly spread across Gazilon's face. "Oz, Fiyero," he said, an incredulous laugh escaping his lips. "She'll be fine. She has some broken bones and a concussion and she's worried sick about you, but she's going to be okay." He moved towards Fiyero and placed his hand on the prince's forehead, checking for a fever. "Honestly, though… we thought you weren't going to make it." He shook his head. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore," Fiyero replied hoarsely. "But other than that, fine."

Gazilon shook his head again. "Unbelievable." He tried to remember the instructions the nurse had given him in case Fiyero would wake up; but other than checking for a fever and letting him rest, he couldn't think of anything.

"Get some rest," he said finally. "The nurse said that's good for you. And you might want to wake Elphaba to let her know you're okay."

A soft, anguished whimper from Elphaba's lips underlined that statement, and Gazilon squeezed Fiyero's shoulder. "It's good to see you awake again," he said sincerely. Then he left the room to tell Galinda and Cyara the news.

Fiyero looked down at Elphaba. She was frowning and whimpering softly in her sleep, clutching him tightly.

"Fae?" he whispered.

She buried her face in his shirt and cried softly, "Fiyero…"

He brought his hand up to gently stroke her hair. "It's okay," he whispered. "Fae, it's okay. Wake up, sweetheart."

"Fiyero…" Her eyelids fluttered for a moment and she curled into him, pressing her cheek to his chest. "I dreamt that you were dead," she whispered, her eyes still closed.

He softly ran his fingers through her hair. "I'm not," he assured her. "I'm okay."

"Mm…" She started to drift off again. "Good."

Then her eyes suddenly flew open and she shot up, not even caring about the stab of pain shooting through her body. "Fiyero?!" She stared at him with wide eyes. Then she slowly reached out to trace his cheek with her fingers.

"You're alive," she whispered incredulously. "Are you…"

"I'm okay," he assured her softly. "I'll be fine."

Her eyes slowly filled with tears. "Really?"

He smiled and reached for her, slowly and gingerly wrapping her in his arms. She was trembling violently all over and he tucked the blanket in around her, stroking her back. "Shh, it's okay," he soothed her, his heart breaking when he heard the heart-wrenching sobs that now escaped her lips. "It's okay, sweetheart, really. You're okay, I'm okay. We're all going to be alright."

He held her close and she wrapped herself around him, burrowing into him in an attempt to get as close to him as she possibly could.

They stayed like that until her sobs finally died down and they both drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Nessa?"

The girl turned away from her father, staring out of the window instead.

She heard his impatient sigh behind her. "There's a letter for you."

She didn't respond.

"It came from Shiz."

Now she whirled around as fast as she could and she wheeled herself towards him, snatching the letter from his hand and ripping open the envelope. Frex sighed again and waited in the doorway, curious about the happenings at Shiz.

_My sweet, sweet Nessa,_

_First of all: I am so sorry, Nessie. About everything. I'm sorry I let this happen, I'm sorry I have to tell you like this… but I am grateful that you are safely back in Munchkinland, and not here at Shiz, right now._

_I'm sure you've heard about what has happened here by now – it's all over the news, everyone is talking about it and every newspaper is writing about it. It's horrible. There is chaos everywhere. Buildings collapsed, people were trapped underneath the rubble. Gazilon and Fiyero saved my life – I had fallen unconscious after the explosion, and if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have made it out alive. As it is, I am… well, not exactly 'alright', but alive and planning on keeping it that way. Gazilon will be fine as well, and Galinda and Cyara were in town when the attack came – thankfully, they haven't been harmed at all._

_Fiyero was hurt very badly and we were afraid that he wasn't going to pull through; but last night, thank Oz, he woke up. He has a nasty head wound and a severe concussion, as well as some bruised ribs. He will need to stay in bed for at least a week, probably longer; but he's going to make it._

_Boq, though… Oh, Nessa, I'm so sorry. He was in the Psychology building, where the first explosion hit. The entire building came down, and… I don't know how to tell you this, Nessie, but… no-one survived. I'm sorry, Nessa. I'm so, so sorry. It's all my fault, I know that, and I'll understand if you hate me and don't want to see me ever again… all I want is for you to know that I love you and I never meant for this to happen. I want you to know how sorry I am._

_Boq will be brought back to Munchkinland either tomorrow or the day after, so that he may be buried near his home._

_I'm sorry, Nessa._

_Your loving sister,_

_Elphaba_

Frex watched as his youngest daughter clasped her hand over her mouth in horror, tears in her eyes that were soon spilling over, dripping down and staining the letter. She slowly lowered the piece of paper and stared ahead of her blankly for a few moment, clearly attempting to process the news.

She looked down at the letter again and a sob escaped her lips. "Oh, Fabala…" she whispered, clutching the arm of her chair tightly with one hand.

"It's not your fault," she whimpered, closing her eyes for a moment. "It's not… it's mine." She opened her eyes again and turned, her eyes colder than Frex had ever seen them as she directed a death glare at him that was so similar to Elphaba's that he was taken aback for a moment.

"And yours," she added accusingly, sniffling and wiping at her tears. "It's your fault, too."

She clutched the paper in her hand until it was completely wrinkled, and she tightened her grip on it. Then she suddenly burst into tears.

"Boq!" she wept, burying her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. "I'm so sorry!"

Frex tentatively approached her, his hand outstretched to place on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort and sympathy. "Nessa –"

"Don't _touch _me!" she screeched, violently yanking her arm away from him and wheeling herself across the room. She stayed there, cowering in her chair, her hazel eyes glowing like an animal's. "Don't touch me," she hissed. "Don't touch me _ever _again. Boq is dead, and it's your fault, Father! Yours and the Glikkuns'! And if you even think for a clock-tick that I'm going to work with you, strengthen the bonds between _my _province and those terrorists, the people that murdered my _boyfriend_… you're wrong. You're dead wrong. I'm not going to speak a single word to you ever again!"

Frex tried to approach her again, but she snatched a hairbrush from her vanity and hurled it at him, nearly hitting him in the head. "Get out!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs, grabbing every object she could reach and hurling them across the room, in her father's direction. "Get out of my room! Leave me _alone_!"

He quickly left and closed the door behind him.

Nessarose collapsed out of her chair and onto her bed, sobbing.

* * *

"Gazilon?"

The boy turned around from where he had been talking to Galinda and Cyara and looked at Fiyero. The prince was still on bed rest; and Elphaba seemed to be on bed rest with him, because she never left his side. None of the others so much as mentioned it – they understood that she had almost lost Fiyero and wanted to be as close to him as possible; and though she didn't have to stay in bed all the time, she _did _have a concussion and some rather bad injuries, so all the rest she got this way was only good for her.

Right now, she was curled up on Fiyero's chest, where she mostly seemed to be these days, fast asleep. Gazilon almost never saw her sleeping in a different position anymore; he suspected she had trouble sleeping unless she could hear Fiyero's heartbeat and was reassured that he was still alive.

Fiyero himself had one arm wrapped around the dark-haired girl, his fingers playing with the strands of her raven hair, and he was looking at Gazilon.

"I need your help," he said simply.

Gazilon plopped down in the chair next to the bed and looked at the Vinkun prince expectantly. "With what?"

Fiyero hesitated, then blurted it out. "Gaz, my father's funeral is tomorrow," he said. "I have to go."

Galinda and Cyara, who had softly been talking to one another, both fell silent and turned around now.

"Excuse me?" Galinda demanded in a high voice. Cyara just stared at her brother wide-eyed.

Fiyero sighed. "Look, guys…"

Elphaba murmured something in her sleep, and Fiyero tightened his grip on her, stroking her hair.

"He's my father," he said quietly. "And he died." His voice sounded a little choked. "I can't _not _go. You understand that, right? My mum is all alone right now."

"I can go," Cyara said softly. "I _will _go. Mum won't be alone, Fiyero."

"I know," Fiyero said hesitantly. "But…" He faltered, not sure how to explain it.

"Is this a 'now-I'm-the-only-man-of-the-family'-thing?" asked Cyara – one of the two people in the world who could always read his mind.

He bit his lip. "That, too," he admitted. "I mean… with Dad gone, I… I'm the only man now, Cy. Worse, even – I'm the _king_. You and Mum are my responsibility."

Galinda snorted, but Cyara just nodded calmly. "I understand."

"And I just want to go," Fiyero said simply. "He is… was… my father. I want… I need to say goodbye to him."

"Fiyero…" Galinda sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at him solemnly. "You're on bed rest."

"I don't care," he said immediately.

"You can't go," Galinda insisted. "Fifi, if your injuries get worse because of this trip…"

"I don't care, Galinda," he said simply. "I need to say goodbye to my father. I have to go to the funeral."

Galinda sighed. "Think about Elphie, then," she pushed on. "It wouldn't be good for _her_, either, to go on such a long trip. She's injured, too, you know."

"Of course I know," Fiyero snapped. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "I'd love to have her there with me," he confessed, "but I don't want to risk her health as well as mine. She can just stay here with you and Gazilon. You'll take care of her, won't you?"

"We would," Gazilon agreed. "Of course we would."

Galinda, however, narrowed her eyes. "You really want to leave her here?" she asked pointedly. "Away from you? Fiyero, you didn't see her when you were unconscious and we weren't sure if you were going to make it. It was horrible. If you leave her now… she couldn't handle that. She can't be away from you right now."

Fiyero looked down at the green girl curled up on his chest. She had burrowed as close to him as she possibly could, as she always did these days, with her cheek pressed to his chest and the hand on her good arm clutching the fabric of his shirt tightly. He knew Galinda was right.

"Just think about it," Galinda told him before moving into the sitting room. Cyara and Gazilon followed here, giving Fiyero sympathetic looks before they left.

Fiyero sighed and stared ahead of him for a few moments, lost in thought.

"I'll come with you," Elphaba said softly, startling him.

He looked down at her, only to find her looking back at him. "I thought you were asleep," he said, tenderly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "How are you feeling?"

She half-shrugged. "Fine," she said. "And I was sleeping… at first. It's hard to sleep through Galinda's indignant squeals."

Fiyero chuckled softly, running his fingers through her hair.

She looked up at him. "Yero… I don't want you to stay here for me," she said quietly. "But Galinda is right – I don't want to be away from you, either. Not now."

He kissed the top of her head. "I understand. I don't want to be away from you, either."

"So I'm coming with you," she said simply.

He sighed. "Fae –"

"Stop," she cut him off. "Don't even say it. I'm fine, Yero. Your injuries are worse than mine. If you're going, then so am I."

He closed his mouth and leant down to kiss her gently instead. "I love you so much," he murmured.

She smiled and laid her head on his shoulder for a moment. "I love you, too, Yero my hero." Then she raised her head again and pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go get ready."


	18. The Vinkus

**AN: Updates on both _Always there _and _Here we stand _within ten minutes? Aren't you spoilt :P.**

**Of course I didn't kill Fiyero.**

**This chapter is calm, though I can't promise you it is going to stay that way... I love how some of you are all like "I feel sorry for Nessa" and some are like "Heheh, serves her well".**

* * *

**Chapter 18. The Vinkus**

"Just for the record," Galinda said as she watched Gazilon and Cyara helping Fiyero up and into the carriage, "I think this is a terrible idea."

Elphaba, who was leaning on a stick next to the blonde, said simply, "I know."

"No, really," Galinda insisted. "I really, honestly think that this is a very, very bad idea."

Elphaba suppressed a sigh. "I know, Glin. So you've told us at least twenty times already."

"What if you die?"

Elphaba shrugged half-heartedly. "Then I suppose you're lucky," she said bitterly.

Galinda glared at her friend. "Just so you know," she informed the green girl, "if it weren't for the fact that you have a concussion, I would totally have whacked you in the head just there."

"Thank Oz for my concussion," said Elphaba, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Galinda sighed. "Elphie, I want you to stop saying such things," she scolded her friend gently. "You are not a curse, this was not your fault, and we all love you. It would kill us if you died – especially Fiyero. We're just worried about you, that's all."

"Well, don't be," said Elphaba as Gazilon and Cyara approached her, ready to help her as well. "Just because we're not supposed to be out of bed, doesn't mean we'll die the moment we travel somewhere, Glin. Just relax."

She allowed Gazilon to gingerly lift her up and set her down in the carriage next to Fiyero, who was already looking half asleep. Cyara spread a blanket over the both of them and then she, Galinda and Gazilon sat down on the bench opposite the couple. The door closed and the carriage started moving.

"We'll probably reach the Vinkus in the morning," said Cyara softly, looking out of the window. "I feel so bad for Mum… she's all alone, knowing that her husband is dead and her son was hurt."

Fiyero frowned slightly. "She knows about that?"

Cyara nodded. "I sent her a letter the day before yesterday," she said. "She knows you're going to be okay – thank Oz. But still. I wish I could be there with her."

Galinda touched the girl's arm comfortingly. "You will be soon," she said. "You'll see her again in the morning."

Cyara smiled faintly at the blonde. "Yeah. I know."

It didn't take very long for Fiyero to fall asleep, even though Elphaba just couldn't relax enough to sleep as well – especially not with Galinda watching her like a hawk all the time.

"What?" she finally snapped, at which the blonde huffed, offended.

"Just making sure you're okay, Elphie," she said indignantly. "And Fiyero. He's not dead, is he?"

Elphaba exhaled audibly. "No," she said through gritted teeth. "He's just _resting _ - you know, the thing you insist we should do all the time? Don't go paranoid on me, missy. And stop staring at me – I can't possibly sleep when you're watching me like that."

Galinda stuck out her tongue. Elphaba just rolled her eyes.

Gazilon decided to distract the blonde girl by asking her some questions about her home and her family, and Galinda started chattering excitedly. Elphaba gave the Glikkun boy a grateful look before closing her eyes and attempting to go to sleep as well.

However, she found herself unable to drift off. She kept on thinking about Fiyero's parents, and Boq, and Nessa, and her own father, and the explosion at Shiz… all the students that had been killed. She shifted, trying to get comfortable; she tried to think of more relaxing things, she even started singing a song in her head, but none of it worked.

She didn't feel like talking, either, though; so she just kept her eyes closed and pretended to be asleep for a long while.

When she finally opened her eyes again, Cyara and Galinda had both drifted off, the latter with her head against Gazilon's shoulder. The green girl smiled when she saw that.

"Hey," Gazilon, who was still awake, whispered.

She looked at him. "Hey."

He took her in, then said, "You didn't sleep at all, did you?"

She shook her head and he sighed. "El, you need to sleep."

"I know." She shrugged. "I just can't."

He gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I was wondering about something," she said quietly, fidgeting with the bandage around her right arm. She winced slightly when she accidentally prodded the skin too forcefully and her fingers started playing with the blanket instead.

"When Nessa wrote to my father," Elphaba continued, eyes trained on her fingers, "the Glikkuns found out somehow. Maybe Father told them, or maybe they intercepted the letter… I don't know. The thing is, if you look at the timing of everything… I can't help but feel that Father got Nessa out of Shiz because he knew what was going to happen, and that's why he wanted her home so soon."

Gazilon nodded thoughtfully, absently stroking Galinda's hair with one hand. "That sounds plausible."

"So he probably made a deal with the Glikkuns in which he could save Nessa – and, most likely, secure the bond between the two provinces," Elphaba continued, thinking out loud. "He knew the attack was coming."

Gazilon saw the thoughtful frown on her face. "I'm sorry, El," he said.

She looked up at him in surprise. "What? What for?"

"That he decided to save Nessa, but not you," Gazilon said softly. "That must hurt."

Elphaba actually laughed at that. "Hurt? Oh, Gazilon – you've seen the way my father treats me, haven't you? Don't forget – we're talking about the man who threatened to come and kill me and Fiyero single-handedly if I made a mistake with you. The man who has hated me from the moment I was born. I'm not surprised, Gazilon. I'm not surprised and I'm not hurt. I wouldn't have expected anything else from him. To be completely honest, I think he has been wanting me dead for years already, but just couldn't think of a way to do it without ending up in jail."

"Elphaba!" Gazilon said, shocked, but she just shrugged.

"It's no big deal," she said. "I'm used to it."

He didn't say anything else because he knew she was right – he _had _seen the way her father treated her; and if that was the way he always treated her, than he wasn't really surprised, either.

"I'm not even surprised that he let this happen," Elphaba said, staring out of the window. "I had hoped that his being heartless was limited to his treatment of me, but… I don't know. I feel like I should have seen this coming – he doesn't care about anything but himself and Nessarose, and his political position, his power, his money. Apparently he didn't really mind hundreds of people being killed for him to secure his position. I had hoped he would be better than that, but… well, apparently not." She looked at Gazilon, her dark gaze opaque and unreadable. "What I _am_ wondering about, though, is _your _parents."

"What about them?"

She kept on looking at him. "If Father had the chance to save Nessa," she said, "then your parents must have had the chance to save you, right? I'm not implying anything here," she hastened to assure him. "I mean, maybe they tried and their letter was lost, or maybe they didn't even know about the attack, or –"

"Oh, they knew," Gazilon said matter-of-factly. "I know they knew about the attack. They're probably the ones who ordered it to happen."

Elphaba gaped at him. "Then why…"

He shrugged. "I served my purpose," he said. "Or, well, I didn't, really, but… my parents never loved me, Elphaba. They used me, just like they use everything and everyone else around them. I served a purpose by being with you, and when I screwed that up, they didn't care about me anymore. It's as simple as that."

She was looking at him with wide eyes and he gave her a half-smile.

"Don't look so surprised," he said. "El, my parents are terrorists. And I'm not saying that there are no terrorists who care about their families, but my parents never have. The best criminals are the ones with nothing to lose; either the ones who have lost everything they once had, or the ones that do have things, but don't care about them enough to do anything to keep them safe."

She lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

He twirled a strand of Galinda's golden hair around his finger. "Don't be. You know what it's like, after all. Worse, even – at least my parents took good care of me, despite everything. Your father just yelled at you, hit you and called you names."

She remained silent and looked out of the window again.

"I'm worried about Nessa," she said softly after a while. "I don't know how the news of the attack and Boq's death have affected her, and… and I don't know what Father would do… she's his favourite, but I can't help but feel that he no longer is the man he once was. I'm afraid he'll hurt her." She sighed. "And Boq… his family will be devastated," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "We've known each other for such a long time… his mother was always so nice to me, his younger siblings were so adorable… and now their brother, their son, is gone because of me."

Gazilon sighed. "Would you stop that?"

She shook her head. "No matter what you all say, it's my fault," she insisted. "You can't deny that if I hadn't started seeing Fiyero in secret, this would never have happened."

"It also wouldn't have happened if Frex hadn't made that agreement with my parents," Gazilon said tiredly, rubbing his forehead, "or if the Glikkuns hadn't decided to attack the rest of Oz, or if Nessa hadn't written that letter to your father."

"But –"

"And if you're going to blame yourself, then you have to blame me, too," he reminded her. "Because I was there, you know. We were in it together, and I encouraged you to be with Fiyero – I even helped you with all of that. You can't blame yourself without blaming me as well. Are you really going to do that?" He pouted and made googly eyes at her.

She glared at him. "You are impossible."

He flashed her a grin.

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. "Fine," she muttered. "I'll try to stop."

"Good girl. Now go to sleep."

She opened her eyes to send another glare in his direction. "What am I, a dog?"

"No," Gazilon said cheerfully. "You're my fake girlfriend who has been hurt very badly and should just cuddle up with her real boyfriend to sleep and regain her strength. Although," he mused as he thought about that, "I suppose we're not fake boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, are we? I mean… it's not really of any use anymore."

"Fine," said Elphaba. "Let's part ways as good friends." She dramatically held out her hand for him to shake.

He laughed softly.

"For the record," Elphaba said, her dark brown eyes meeting his. "I know this sucked, and it was fake and it was awful at times, but… but if I had to have a fake boyfriend, anyway… I'm glad it was you."

He smiled, took her hand and kissed it. "I'm glad it was you, too." He squeezed her hand. "Friends?"

"Sure," she agreed easily.

She fell asleep some time later, curled up against Fiyero. As if on cue, the Vinkun prince then opened his eyes.

Gazilon eyed him in amusement. "You weren't asleep, either, were you?"

Fiyero gave him a lopsided half-grin. "Not really," he admitted. "I woke up while you were talking, but I didn't want to interrupt." He sighed and ran his fingers through Elphaba's hair softly. "I hate that she still blames herself," he said quietly. "And to hear about the way her father treated her…"

"She's getting better," Gazilon assured the other boy. "She'll be fine."

"Could you keep it down?" Cyara muttered. "Some people here are trying to get some rest."

Fiyero chuckled. "Sorry, sis."

Cyara opened one eye to glare at him. "You haven't changed one bit, have you?"

He quirked one eyebrow.

"Behold," Cyara said sleepily, closing her eyes again. "The great and scandalacious Fiyero Tiggular, the image of perfection. Look at those bruised ribs – aren't they just the prettiest sight you've ever seen? Look at that sexy bandage around his head…"

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, Cyara," Galinda said as she opened her eyes as well to look at the Vinkun princess. "He's changed an awful lot since he first came to Shiz."

Cyara smiled, opened her eyes and sat up a little. "I know," she said. "And he and Elphaba are very cute to watch together. I just love to tease him, that's all."

Fiyero scowled at his sister.

"How much longer?" Galinda tried to distract them. It worked.

"Couple more hours," Fiyero said, looking out of the window.

"Oh." Galinda yawned. "In that case, I'm going back to sleep." She snuggled into Gazilon's side and fell asleep again within clock-ticks.

Gazilon stared down at the blonde wide-eyed, and Fiyero and Cyara were both grinning.

"Ooh, is that love I smell in the air?" Cyara joked, and Fiyero laughed.

"I think all Gazilon is smelling right now is the scent of roses in Galinda's hair," he said to his sister in a stage whisper.

Cyara giggled. "Just kiss the girl already, Gazilon. I bet she likes you, too."

Gazilon's face was flushed, but didn't deny it. Instead, he said in wonder, "You think?"

"I _know_," Fiyero assured the other boy.

Gazilon grinned a bit sheepishly. "Well… I don't think now is really the time for that," he said, looking down at Galinda again. "But who knows what'll happen?"

Cyara and Gazilon made some small talk together, and Fiyero looked down at the sleeping green girl curled up against him. She was murmuring something in her sleep and he ran his fingers through her long, silky hair. "Shh," he whispered, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "I'm right here, Fae. You're okay."

His fingers felt the bandage around her broken arm and he looked around the carriage, only now realising how they must look if someone saw them. The cut in Gazilon's forehead was still visible and though it wasn't noticeable when he was wearing trousers, there was a bandage around a wound on his upper leg as well. Fiyero himself was still wearing a bandage around his head, as well as one around his torso to support his bruised ribs; and Elphaba still had a nasty-looking wound on her temple, as well as bandages around her broken arm and her injured ankle. They looked like they had lived through a war, which, Fiyero thought as he mentally evaluated the happenings from the past few days, was actually the case, in a way. It had certainly felt like a war, that was for sure.

He stayed awake until they reached the castle of Kiamo Ko, around sunrise. By then, the others had woken up as well and they watched silently as the huge building came into view.


	19. The plans

**AN: I love how you all loved the sexy bandages :D. And I agree, Gazilon and Galinda need a good ship name. Gazinda? Gazilinda? Galindilon? Galinlon? LOL**

**The Wizard of Wicked: I can totally see a bunch of girls fangirling over Fiyero's bandage now. **

**I also agree with you guys that Elphilon friendship is cute, but I'll never ship it, either :P.**

* * *

**Chapter 19. The plans**

The reunion between Cyara and Fiyero and the queen of the Vinkus was the most heartbreaking thing Elphaba had ever seen.

The moment the carriage stopped, Cyara leapt out of it, yelling, "Mum!" Only then did Elphaba notice a woman standing there, waiting for them. She was dressed in a black gown with full skirts and she was wearing a crown on top of her wavy, light brown hair, which flowed down to her shoulders.

The moment Lori saw her daughter, her eyes widened and she whispered Cyara's name. The blonde princess launched herself at her mother in a tight hug as Gazilon helped Fiyero down from the carriage.

Cyara and Lori were both crying as they held one another.

"Oh, Cyara," Lori whispered, hugging her daughter tightly. "Thank Oz. When you disappeared, and they couldn't find you among the remnants of Adurin Iir…" She shook her head. "You have no idea how scared I was, and how relieved I was when Fiyero wrote me you were with him! I thought…" She choked on a sob and Cyara hugged her even tighter.

And then Lori caught sight of her son over Cyara's shoulder and she slowly let go of the girl. "Yero…" Her eyes filled up with tears again when she saw the state he was in.

He just embraced her wordlessly and she clung to him. "I'm okay, Mum," he assured her softly. "I'll be fine. Cyara, too. We still have each other."

"I know." Lori took a deep breath and pulled away, looking into her son's eyes. She gently reached out to touch the bandage around his head. "I know."

He pulled away and looked up at the huge castle. "So you're staying at Kiamo Ko now?"

Lori nodded. "They're working on rebuilding Adurin Iir," she said quietly, "but the explosion caused so much damage that we won't be able to live there for at least another five years or so. Your father…" She closed her eyes for a moment. "We've decided to bury him here."

Fiyero squeezed her hand comfortingly. "I'm so sorry, Mum."

"Me, too, sweetheart." She wrapped one arm around his waist and one arm around Cyara's. "You have no idea how grateful I am that you are both alright," she said. "I love you."

Both of her children hugged her back. "We love you, too, Mum."

Then Fiyero detached himself from his mother and looked over at Elphaba, who was standing a few metres away with Gazilon. He beckoned her and she limped over to him.

"Mum," he said, "this is Elphaba. Fae, this is my mum, Queen Eleonora of the Vinkus."

"You can call me Lori," the woman assured Elphaba as she embraced her warmly. "Fiyero has told me so much about you… I wish we could have met under different circumstances." She took Elphaba in. "Are you alright?"

"I will be." Elphaba looked at the queen. "I'm very sorry about your husband," she said softly.

Lori smiled sadly at her. "Thank you, sweetheart." She tried to keep her composure, but her voice cracked a little.

"Come on," she said, forcing herself to sound cheerful. "Let's get out of the cold, alright? There's a nice fire inside." With that, she ushered everyone into the castle.

* * *

The funeral was sad, but beautiful. Fiyero held onto Elphaba's hand tightly throughout the entire service, and everyone, even Gazilon, cried as Lori spoke a few words about her husband, followed by Fiyero, who talked about his own memories of his father. When it was over and King Hamold had been buried, Lori invited the guests into the large sitting room of Kiamo Ko for coffee; she herself, however, went upstairs with the others, retreating from the public display.

"It's customary to invite the guests inside after a funeral," Lori explained quietly, "but most people probably won't even expect me to be there. They'll all understand that I'm not really in the mood to mingle."

She ushered Fiyero and Elphaba into the prince's bedroom to rest, which they both rather easily complied to – Fiyero because he felt genuinely tired, dizzy and drained from the emotional morning; and Elphaba because she wanted to stay with Fiyero.

"Mrs. Tiggular – I mean, Lori?" Galinda quickly corrected herself. "Are you… I mean… are you okay?"

Lori smiled sadly at the blonde. "I'm alright," she said, "thank you for asking. Or as well as can be expected in the circumstances, anyway." She sighed. "For now, I'm just glad that I didn't lose Cyara and Fiyero, too."

She rose to her feet. "Why don't you all get some rest?" she suggested. "I will see you again tonight for dinner."

With that, she left the room.

Gazilon and Galinda shared a look. Cyara stared at the door her mother had just disappeared through, feeling torn.

Then she rose to her feet. "I'm just going after her for a moment," she said softly. "I think… I think she needs me right now."

Galinda gave her an encouraging smile and the younger girl left.

Galinda sighed and sank back into the pillows of the couch. "I feel so awful for them. Fiyero and Cyara losing their father, Lori her husband… Fiyero is king of the Vinkus now, did you realise that?"

Gazilon's eyes widened. "Oh, wow."

"Elphie will pull him through, though," said Galinda confidently. She bit her lip. "At least _something _good came out of all this," she said. "Elphie and Fiyero can be together now without having to fear for their – and our – lives."

Gazilon smiled. "You know? I love how you can find something good in every situation, no matter how bad things get. I really admire your optimism, Glin."

She tossed her hair over her shoulders and giggled. "Thank you." Then her face fell again. "Still, though… there's not much to be optimistic about right now," she said softly.

Gazilon wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture. "I know."

She rested her head against his shoulder and sighed sadly. "Poor Boq… poor Nessa. I wonder how she's coping with the news of his death." She furrowed her brow slightly. "We should go to Munchkinland in a few days," she said. "To see how Nessa is doing, and to attend Boq's funeral…"

Gazilon nodded. "I agree."

"I'll talk to Elphie about it when she wakes up." Galinda yawned, daintily covering her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry. It's been a long trip and I haven't slept all that well in the carriage."

"It's fine." Without thinking, Gazilon dropped a kiss on the top of Galinda's head. "Do you want me to walk you to your room?"

She hesitated, then nodded. "Yes, please."

* * *

"Elphie?"

The young witch muttered something in her sleep and turned onto her side.

Someone shook her gently. "El, wake up."

"Mm."

She felt someone sitting on the edge of the bed. The person leant over towards her and then suddenly shrieked in her ear, "ELPHIE!"

Elphaba immediately shot up, bewildered; then she winced at the sudden movement and brought one hand up to her head. "What was that for?" she cried.

"Galinda!" Fiyero and Gazilon shouted at the same time.

The blonde huffed and crossed her arms. "What? She's awake, isn't she?"

Fiyero rolled his eyes and looked at the green girl in concern. "You alright?"

"Fine," she muttered. "Just ear drum damage and a killer headache."

Galinda looked sheepish. "Sorry. I forgot about your concussion for a moment."

"So why this violent wake-up call?" asked Elphaba as she pushed herself into a sitting position, leaning back against the pillows.

Fiyero, who was sitting next to her, put his arm around her and rested his head against hers while Galinda and Gazilon made themselves comfortable on the bed as well.

"We need to talk about what we're going to do next," said Galinda. "Gaz and I talked about it earlier, and we think we should maybe go to Munchkinland to attend Boq's funeral."

Elphaba nodded immediately. "I agree."

"Are you sure?" Fiyero asked her quietly. "It's a long journey to Munchkinland, and –"

"I have to, Yero," she cut him off softly. "I have to see Nessa, too."

Fiyero nodded. "Okay. I'll come with you."

She squeezed his hand gratefully. "We'll come back here right afterwards," she promised him. "I know you don't want to leave your mum alone right now…"

"She won't be alone," he said. "Cyara will stay here. And you're right – Boq was our friend. I want to attend the funeral, too."

"So we're going to go to Munchkinland," Galinda summarised, "and then we're coming back here?"

Fiyero nodded. "My mum will let us stay for as long as we want to."

Galinda looked doubtful. "Really?"

"Definitely," said Fiyero confidently.

"Okay." Elphaba yawned and turned onto her side. "Can I go back to sleep, then?"

"Not yet," said Gazilon, and she moaned.

"What now?"

When he didn't immediately reply, she looked at him. He locked his hazel eyes with hers.

"What about your father?"

She stilled.

"And my parents?" he continued. "I'm not sure if they are still in Munchkinland, but your father definitely is. Have you forgotten what they told us over the summer?"

Elphaba averted her eyes. "No," she muttered. "Of course not."

"What?" Galinda demanded anxiously. "Elphie? What did your father say?"

Elphaba and Gazilon both ignored the blonde.

"I'm sorry, but you can't go, El," Gazilon said quietly.

Her eyes snapped up to meet his again. "Oh, no. I'm going," she stated firmly. "I can't leave Nessie alone, Gaz. Not right now." She looked around. "But you guys are going to have to stay here."

Fiyero's grip on her immediately tightened and Galinda choked. "Excuse me – _what_?!"

"It's too dangerous," Elphaba insisted.

"Elphaba," Gazilon said in exasperation. "You're not going, either."

She met his steady gaze with a flaring one of her own. "Yes, I am."

"No, you're not," Gazilon hissed. "Because I'm pretty sure Galinda and Fiyero will agree with me that we do not particularly want to see Frex strangling you to death with his bare hands and then chop you into little pieces to feed you to the pigs."

Fiyero and Galinda gasped in unison.

Elphaba snorted. "Gaz, he would never do that," she insisted.

He lifted an eyebrow. "You doubt that he would kill you?"

"No," she said. "I doubt that he would do it with his own bare hands."

Gazilon sighed.

"Elphaba…" Fiyero said, and she turned to face him with a sigh.

"Alright, yes," she admitted. "I told you already, Yero – my father threatened to kill me and everyone I care about if I messed this up. And clearly, I _did _mess up. I have no doubt that he will try to get to me through you, Yero, you and Glin and Gazilon; which is exactly why you can't come with me."

"Elphie," said Galinda in a trembling voice. "What about _you_?"

Elphaba made to wave her away, but Gazilon grabbed her wrist.

"Stop doing that," he said angrily. "Elphaba, I know how blasé you always are about your health; but believe it or not, we care about you and we don't want to see you hurt – let alone worse than that. So either we're all going and we're going to do so with a plan; or none of us is going at all."

Galinda shot an admiring look in his direction. "Well said, Gaz."

He grinned at her.

Fiyero brushed some raven hair away from Elphaba's face. "Fae?"

She looked at him.

"He's right, you know," he said softly.

She sighed and caved. "I know." She sighed again. "Fine, then."

Galinda patted her friend's head. "That's a good Elphie," she cooed.

Elphaba just glared at the blonde.

* * *

Later, when it was dark outside and they had all retreated back into their rooms for the night, Fiyero watched as Elphaba awkwardly hopped around on one foot in an attempt to pull her nightgown over her injured arm.

"Do you need a hand?" he offered, but the only reply he got was a shriek.

"Fiyero! I told you not to look!"

"I'm not looking," he said.

She glared at him. "I told you to turn around."

He just blinked back at her innocently. "You didn't make that clear."

She huffed and he laughed. "Oh, come on, Fae. There's nothing I haven't seen already. You remember we nearly… you know… one time."

She blushed furiously. "Please don't bring that up."

He slowly crawled out of bed and padded across the room to help her pull her nightgown over her head. She sighed and leant against him.

"I just don't want you to see me like that," she mumbled, colour flooding her cheeks.

He grabbed her shoulders and held her half a metre away from him. "Are you serious?"

She shrugged and he shook his head, pulling her closer again and rubbing both hands up and down her back slowly. He nuzzled her hair for a moment; then he pulled away enough to rest his forehead against hers.

"Fae," he whispered softly. "You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen."

She looked up at him, her eyes huge and filled with doubt.

He cupped her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb. "Please don't ever doubt that."

She buried her face in his shoulder and tightened her grip on him, only to pull away immediately when she heard him gasp, alarmed. "Yero?"

"Sorry." He grimaced. "Ribs."

She blushed when she realised she had nearly squeezed his bruised ribs to mush. "Oh. I'm sorry."

He chuckled breathlessly and sank back down on the edge of the bed. "Just give me a minute."

After a while, he slowly crawled back into the bed with her. She inched away from him, afraid she'd hurt him again; but he just wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her closer again. "Stop that. I'm not made of sugar."

She complied and lay down with her head on Fiyero's chest.

He absent-mindedly ran his fingers through her soft, silky hair. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" she mumbled.

"What Gazilon said?" Fiyero looked at her. "The threats your father made?"

She sighed. "Yes." She sat up in order to be able to look at him. "He went out of his way to make himself clear," she said. "He had already told me that he would punish me if I messed up my fake relationship with Gazilon, but he and Gaz's parents started threatening us, too. Strangle us with their bare hands, tie rocks to our feet and drown us in the lake nearby, nail us to a pole and leave us in the cornfields to die. It doesn't mean anything, Fiyero."

"It doesn't mean anything?" he echoed incredulously. "How can you say that?"

She shrugged. "It's true," she said. "I'm not afraid. Not for myself, anyway."

"But I am." He wrapped her in his arms, holding her close. "Fae, I don't know what I would do if something happened to you," he said softly. "Please promise me that at least you'll be careful. Promise me you won't do anything stupid."

"I thought that was your department," she teased him, but he was serious.

"I mean it, Elphaba," he said, and his using her full name convinced her of the fact that he really was being serious now. "We'll go to Munchkinland, all of us; but we're going to stick together and as soon as it seems like something is going to happen, we're getting out of there. Understood?"

She kissed him. "Yes, Mummy."

"Good." He gently pushed her down and drew her in his arms, guiding her head to rest on his chest again. "Now sleep."

* * *

**Favourite lines? :) (I bet Musicgal3 can pick out mine ^_^.)**


	20. The love

**AN: Such Fiyeraba. Very fluff. Much cute. Wow. (Blame Meike for the Doge-reference. She bothers me with it all the time to the point where I can't help but do it myself sometimes xD.)**

**So, yes. Fluff. Pretty much the entire chapter consists of fluff. Just a warning: don't get used to it. That's all I'm gonna say *smirk*.**

**The Wizard Of Wicked: yes, the 'nail us to a pole and leave us in the cornfields to die' line was a reference :). Kudos to you for picking it up.**

**Siarenthander: yes, I did intentionally switch from 'mom' to 'mum' :). I used to write in a mismash of British-English and American-English; but ever since I started working on my original story, I wanted to pick one and stick with it. I chose British-English, meaning some things in my writing did change. 'Mom' became 'mum', 'learned' became 'learnt', etc... It was originally only meant for my original story, but it seems to have invaded my fanfics as well ^_^.**

**So yesterday I got bitten by the neighbours' dog (the thing was just being playful and yapped at my face, but it's just a small bite, don't worry) and I had to go to the doctor's today to get a new tetanus vaccination. I remember now why I hate needles so much.**

**Anyway, bad news for you: no updates from me tomorrow. Good news for me: I'M SEEING SISTER ACT AGAIN! :D :D :D Can't wait, I'm so excited!**

* * *

**Chapter 20. The love**

She was playing with his fingers. "Yero?"

He sighed. "You're _still _not sleeping?"

"I'll be quiet if _you _want to sleep," she began anxiously, but he shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said. "What were you saying?"

She concentrated on his fingers again. "I was just wondering… about what you said before." She looked up at him for a moment before lowering her gaze again. "Do you really think I'm… beautiful?"

He sat up a little and cupped her face with both hands, gazing into her chocolate brown eyes.

"Fae," he said. "I know you always doubt yourself and everyone – and everything – around you, and I know that's part of who you are and I love you for it; but there are two things that you are not allowed to doubt. _Ever_."

"What things?" she asked in a small voice, and he gently kissed her forehead.

"The fact that I love you," he said, "and the fact that to me, nothing and no-one in the entire universe is more beautiful than you are."

She looked up at him with wide, doe-like eyes, looking like a little girl instead of a twenty-one year old woman. "Really?"

He rubbed his nose against hers, smiling when she blushed a little. "Really."

She kissed him deeply, winding her good arm around his neck as she curled into him. He held her tightly, kissing her back.

"I love you," she whispered. "I love you so much, Yero my hero."

"I love you, too, Fae." He kissed her neck and she arched her body into his, melting into his arms.

They kissed for a long while and she trailed her fingers down his chest, careful not to put too much pressure on the skin because of his bruised ribs. He pulled away slightly and when he looked down at her, his eyes were a few shades darker than usual.

"Fae?" he whispered.

She murmured something incoherent and pulled him back for another kiss. A contented sigh escaped her lips when he re-captured her lips with his, deepening the kiss almost immediately as he pressed her closer.

"Let's hope Galinda won't walk in on us again," Elphaba mumbled with a small giggle, which turned into a soft gasp when Fiyero's lips found the soft, sensitive skin just below her ear. Her eyes fluttered shut and she pulled him even closer, tangling their legs together.

When he finally pulled away a little, looking down at her, he couldn't help but smile. She was breathless, her face was flushed and her eyes were darker than he had ever seen them. Her soft, black hair fanned out over the pillow and she was biting her slightly swollen lip as she looked back at him. To him, she had never looked more beautiful.

"You're gorgeous," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her again.

"Mm." He felt her smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're not so bad yourself."

She could feel his chuckle vibrating in his chest as he kissed her once more, but then he pulled away again.

"Are you sure?" he asked her softly.

She nodded. "No wedding night to worry about now, is there?"

He lifted an eyebrow.

She sighed. "Look, Yero…"

"I know," he cut her off gently. "I know, Fae. I love you, too, and I want this, too; but I think we should wait."

She huffed, making him laugh. He kissed her nose.

"You're hurt," he whispered, "and so am I. We're all a bit emotional right now, and I don't want you to do something you might regret later."

"I won't –"

"Still." He ran his fingers through her long hair and moved to lie beside her, pulling her in his arms. "I can wait. I don't mind waiting. We have time."

"Do we?" she whispered sadly. "What if my father –"

"We're going to be fine," he told her sternly, smoothing her hair away from her brow. "All of us. Stop worrying and go to sleep."

She sighed, but gave in. She trailed soft circles on his chest, lost in thought. "Yero?"

"Yeah?"

She looked up at him. "Are you going to have to stay here now?" she queried softly. "Because… you know… you're the king now?"

She felt him wince and she immediately felt awful. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have –"

"No, no, it's fine." He sighed, wrapping her in his arms and resting his cheek against the top of her head. "Mum said she'll rule as a regent, with the help of my father's advisors, until I'm old enough to take the throne myself – probably straight after graduation."

"Oh." She laid her head on his chest, heaving a sigh. "Still… I'm sorry. It can't be easy."

"It's not." He tightened his grip on her, just a fraction. "But I'll be fine."

She looked up at him, and he kissed the top of her head. "We'll all be fine."

* * *

They left back for Munchkinland a few days later.

Cyara would stay behind with Lori; Gazilon, Galinda, Fiyero and Elphaba would go to Munchkinland for the funeral and to check up on Nessa, and they were scheduled to leave back for the Vinkus within three days. Other universities throughout Oz were taking in the Shiz students and the group would go back to university in the Vinkus, since Shiz would have to be cleared of debris and then rebuilt almost completely, which would most likely take years.

The carriage ride was a quiet one. Galinda tried to get a conversation going a few times, but with Gazilon being the only one willing to indulge her, they soon fell silent again. Fiyero slept most of the way there, still physically weak; while Elphaba just curled up against him and watched houses, cities, trees, meadows and cornfields flying by through the window.

When they arrived, Fiyero paid for two hotel rooms with the money his mother had given him for the journey. It was already past dinnertime by then and everyone went straight to bed – Galinda sharing a room with Elphaba and Gazilon with Fiyero, as was the proper thing to do.

"Elphie?" Galinda said softly. "Are you sure you don't mind sharing a room with me instead of Fiyero?"

Elphaba forced a smile. "Of course I don't mind," she lied.

Galinda raised an eyebrow.

"You're my best friend, Glin," said Elphaba, truthfully this time. "I don't mind sharing with you. If I'm completely honest, then yes, I would have liked to stay with Fiyero, you know, just to…" She trailed off, unsure how to voice her thoughts.

Galinda gave her a sympathetic smile, knowing what her friend was thinking. "To make sure he's okay and alive?"

"Is that stupid?" Elphaba asked quietly, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

Galinda took her friend's hand and squeezed it. "Of course not," she said. "I understand. After what happened…" She looked at her friend more closely. "Elphie, if you want to –"

"No," Elphaba cut her off firmly. "It's okay. I can't keep an eye on him all the time, anyway, and I haven't spent alone time with you in ages. And besides," she added, "I know you and Gazilon like each other, but you aren't _that _close. I'm not going to force you to share a room with him."

Galinda opened her mouth, but Elphaba was quicker.

"Do you want to give me a makeover?"

Galinda closed her mouth and looked at her friend suspiciously. "Are you asking me that to distract me or because you feel bad for neglecting me in favour of Fiyero so often?" she teased.

Elphaba, however, looked slightly guilty and completely serious. "Both."

Galinda bounced over to the green girl's bed and hugged her tightly. "Oh, Elphie. You don't have to do that, you know."

"I know." Elphaba cracked a mischievous smile. "That's what makes me so nice."

Galinda punched her good arm, laughing. "Don't you make fun of me, Elphaba Thropp."

The green girl chuckled.

"And you need your rest."

"I know that, too. But –"

"How about we compromise," Galinda interrupted her, "and you let me brush your hair instead?"

Elphaba conceded and the blonde grabbed a hairbrush, eagerly starting her very important task. She loved Elphaba's hair, so long and thick, and she loved fiddling with it – brushing, curling, twisting, pinning it back or letting it fall loose.

When she was done, she hugged her friend from behind. "There you go. Now go change and then off to bed with you," she said as if she were a mother putting her child to bed.

Elphaba obediently changed into her nightgown and crawled into the bed. Galinda did the same and turned off the light.

"'Night, Elphie," she said, yawning.

"Goodnight," whispered Elphaba, hugging her pillow to her chest as she curled up on her side. She already knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep without Fiyero's arms around her and the soft thumping of his heartbeat in her ear.

* * *

She dozed off eventually, only to awaken from a nightmare less than half an hour later. Restless, she tossed and turned for a while longer before giving up. She slid out of her bed and padded across the room, sneaking - or, well, limping - out the door and into Fiyero and Gazilon's room.

Gazilon, apparently not yet asleep, raised his head when he heard her come in.

"Hey," he whispered, sitting up to look at her. He smiled. "I was wondering when you'd finally stop being stubborn," he teased her.

She stuck out her tongue.

He laughed. "I'm serious," he said, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. "We all know you can't sleep without Fiyero there, and he's been sleeping fitfully without you as well. You're just both too concerned for me and Galinda to admit it." He nodded towards Fiyero's bed. "Go on. I'll go keep Galinda company. I don't mind sharing a room with her and I know she doesn't, either."

Elphaba sighed and complied. "Thanks, Gaz," she said softly, and he squeezed her shoulder as he passed by her.

"Anytime."

As he moved into Elphaba and Galinda's room, the blonde girl startled him by suddenly asking in a whisper, "Is that you, Gazilon?"

"Oz," he whispered, putting one hand over his heart. "I thought you were asleep!"

Galinda shook her head. "I was," she said, "but Elphie woke me up. She was crying in her sleep." She was silent for a moment. "Is she with Fiyero?"

"Yeah." Gazilon made his way across the room and to the other bed, crawling underneath the blankets.

Galinda yawned. "Okay. Good."

"Goodnight, Glin," he whispered.

She was quiet and he thought she may have already fallen asleep; but then she asked softly, "Gazilon?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you sing for me?"

He frowned slightly, propping himself up on his elbows to look at the blonde. "Sing for you?"

"My Momsie always sings for me when I can't sleep," she said in a small voice, "and Elphie did it too, sometimes, when I was sad or upset about something. Please?"

How could he possibly refuse her anything?

"Of course," he whispered, thinking of a song to sing. Finally, he opened his mouth. It was a song of love and family, sunshine and friendship and happiness. A song of home.

In the room beside theirs, Elphaba gingerly climbed into the bed next to Fiyero, snuggling into his back with her good arm wrapped around his waist and her face buried in his neck.

A smile spread across his face and he laced his fingers with hers, pulling them to rest over his chest. "I'm glad you're here," he murmured. "I thought you might have fallen asleep after all – I was just about to come over to yourroom, but I don't think Galinda would have been very happy with that."

She sighed contentedly, pressing her cheek to his back, a soft smile spreading across her face when she heard the steady, reassuring sound of his heartbeat. _Thump-thump. Thump-thump. _The sound calmed her down more than anything else in the world could.

"I couldn't sleep," she whispered. "I did fall asleep at some point, but then I just woke up again half an hour later. I dreamt that you…" She shuddered slightly and buried her head in his shirt. "Never mind. I just can't sleep without you."

"Same here," he whispered, squeezing her hand. "I had nightmares, too. Are you okay now?"

She nodded against his back, eyes closed, already half-asleep now that she was with him and she finally allowed herself to relax. "Yeah."

"Me, too." He kissed her fingers. "Goodnight, Fae. I love you."

"'Night, Yero," she murmured drowsily. "Love you, too."


	21. The funeral

**AN: Is there such a thing as "fluff before the storm"? Or maybe that should be "fluff before the angst"... Whatever it is, that's what was happening last chapter :P. This chapter is leading up to the storm (or the angst, depending on your point of view).**

**MyLittleElphie: the fact that you called me 'our dear Queenie' left me in stitches. :P**

***tackles Wicked4Life in a massive huge gigantic bear hug* MY WICKED WITCH! YOU'RE BACK! YOU'RE ALIVE! *squeezes the life out of you* Honestly, though, I've really missed you! You've been gone for so long! The other day I was re-reading some Frex Hunters fics and they reminded me of my early days on fanfiction - you know, you, BlueD, Failey (who is now Queen Faeley) and me plotting and coming up with strange things to do to Frex in a one-shot, and making up songs... Of course studying is important and I don't blame you for not having much time to read and/or review, but could you try to just drop in and say hi (or 'Boo' :P) every now and then? Just a single word, to let me know you're still alive? :)**

* * *

**Chapter 21. The funeral**

The moment they set foot in the church, Elphaba's eyes fell on the frail girl in the wheelchair a few metres away.

"Nessa!" she gasped and before any of her friends could stop her, she stumbled towards her sister, not caring at all about the fact that she wasn't supposed to put pressure on the torn ligaments in her ankle.

Nessa's head immediately snapped up and the moment she laid eyes on her sister, she burst into tears. "Fabala!"

They all but fell into each other's arms, Nessa sobbing uncontrollably, Elphaba with tears of her own standing in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry!" Nessa wept. "Fabala, I'm so sorry for everything I said, and for telling Father… it's all my fault! It's not your fault, it's mine! I let this happen… I did this – Boq is dead because of me!" She hiccupped. "I'm so sorry, I was so awful to you… Can you ever forgive me?"

"Of course." Elphaba hugged her sister tightly. "Of course I'll forgive you, Nessie. But only if you'll forgive me, too."

That only made Nessa cry harder. She clung to her sister desperately, sobbing her heart out into Elphaba's shoulder.

When the green girl pulled away, Galinda came forward to hug Nessarose as well. "We're so sorry about Boq, Nessa," she said.

Nessa sniffled. "Thank you."

"Where is your father?" asked Fiyero, looking around the church suspiciously.

Nessa wiped her tears away, a hard look coming over her face. "I don't know. And I don't care, either." Her eyes flamed, much like Elphaba's often did when she was angry. "He let this happen," she said in a low voice. "There are many things I should have done differently; but he's the one who tried to be an ally to the enemy. He's the one who allowed them to attack Shiz. It's as much his fault that Boq died as it is the Glikkuns, or mine." She looked up at Elphaba sadly. "I haven't spoken a single word to him since your letter came," she said in a small voice. "I've missed you so much, Fabala. I've been so lonely…"

Elphaba hugged her again. "You don't have to be alone anymore," she promised her little sister.

Nessa looked at them all, eyes red and puffy. "Are you all okay?" she asked softly. "I mean…"

Galinda softened and squeezed Nessa's hand. "We're fine," she assured the younger girl. "Or, well, not fine," she corrected herself with a glance over her shoulder at the others, "but getting there."

Fresh tears welled up in Nessa's eyes. "I'm so glad that you're all alive!" she sniffled. "But…"

"I know," Galinda said sympathetically as she wrapped her arms around Nessa once more. "I know."

Frex did not arrive until the last moment, and he did not approach Nessa or even seek her out in the crowd. Instead, he stood back, watching the coffin with dry eyes as people spoke, commemorated Boq or recited poems and verses. Boq's family was up front, his mother crying all the time, younger children clinging to her skirts. Her husband tried to comfort her, but it was clear that he was very emotional himself. Watching them just increased Elphaba's feelings of guilt.

She swallowed. They had lost their eldest son… their older brother. The mother was inconsolable, and Elphaba felt like her heart was being torn in two. No matter what everyone said, she really was responsible for this. At least partly.

She knew that Galinda was right. She knew that it was the Glikkuns' fault the attack on Shiz had happened. It was her father's fault, partly. It was Nessa's fault, too, just a little bit, because she had written that letter to Frex. Elphaba knew now that she wasn't the only one to blame… but she was still to blame. The truth was that if she had stayed away from Fiyero, if she had been stronger, Boq and all those other students wouldn't be dead right now.

She felt like she couldn't breathe – the guilt was crushing her. She couldn't stand here and look at Boq's family mourning his death like this. His death that she had caused.

"Hey," whispered Fiyero, slipping his fingers into hers and squeezing them softly. "Don't."

"Don't what?" She was still staring at Boq's family, looking – and feeling – miserable.

Fiyero placed his fingers under her chin and turned her head, so that she was looking at him. "Don't look," he said softly. "I know it's awful, but they'll be okay eventually, Fae. Just like Mum and Cyara and I will be okay. It's horrible, everything that's happened, but we have to look forward and move on."

She winced slightly, shaking her head violently as she pulled away from him. He, however, pulled her back, wrapping his arm around her waist and trapping her against his side.

She struggled and squirmed. "Let me go!"

"No."

She could see Nessa over his shoulder, tears streaming down her face as Galinda tried to comfort her, but the blonde's eyes were filled with tears as well. Elphaba imagined faces like those, like her sister's face and the faces of Boq's family, on people all over Oz. People who had lost their friend or family member in the explosions at Shiz. The guilt was overwhelming.

Somehow, Fiyero could see it in her face; because he tilted her chin up again and looked into her eyes.

"Fae," he said softly. "Don't do this."

She sniffled. "Do what?"

"Blaming yourself." Upon her surprised look, he shook his head. "Don't bother denying it, I can see it in your face. Stop it."

She bit her lip. "But –"

"No." He held her even closer and she buried her face in his neck. "It wasn't your fault, Elphaba. It wasn't. The only people who are to blame are the Glikkuns, and that's the end of it. What's happened has happened and we can't change that anymore." He pressed his cheek to her hair. "Stop feeling guilty about this," he begged her softly. "Please. If not for yourself, then for me. I can't stand seeing you like this."

She just cried silently into his shoulder, clinging to him. Galinda and Nessa were both crying as well, and Gazilon was trying to comfort them.

The coffin was carried out of the church and into the graveyard. It was a sad and quiet procession, and soft sniffles could be heard when the coffin was lowered into the earth. When the people started leaving, Elphaba slowly let go of Fiyero to hug her sister again, who was crying inconsolably.

Suddenly, she could feel Gazilon and Galinda tense beside her, and she detached herself from Nessa. When she turned around, her father was standing there.

She slowly rose to her full height, eyes never leaving his. He just stood there, feet planted a little apart, hands behind his back, chin up and an icy cold look in his eyes.

They looked at each other for a long while, neither of them moving. Fiyero made his way over to Elphaba's side, taking her hand to show her that he was there for her. She appreciated his and her friends' presence more than ever now. No matter how composed and calm she seemed on the outside, it felt like her heart was in her throat.

"Elphaba," Frex said finally, and his voice was as cold as his eyes.

She nodded curtly. "Father."

He looked her over with contempt, eyes sliding towards Galinda and Gazilon for a moment, then moving over Fiyero and Nessa before coming back to his eldest daughter.

He clenched his jaw. "You," he hissed in a low voice. "You have some nerve, showing up here."

Fiyero's grip on her hand tightened and a soft squeak escaped Galinda's lips, but Elphaba stood her ground.

"Boq was our friend," she said simply. "And I didn't want Nessa to be alone for this."

"Alone?" he spat. "She was not alone. She had me."

Elphaba held her father's gaze, anger burning underneath her calm façade. "Exactly."

Frex' eyes narrowed. He was clearly fuming with rage, but he, too, kept his composure. "You," he said in a neutral voice, "are nothing more than a disgrace, a curse to everyone around her. You crippled your sister…"

Elphaba winced, feeling as if he had slapped her.

"…you killed your own mother…"

She closed her eyes for a moment, pained.

"…and now," he said with a false smile that didn't reach his eyes, "now you even managed to murder your fellow students. You murdered your sister's boyfriend. Well done, Elphaba." He locked eyes with her, and when he saw the guilt in her eyes, she could in return see the triumph in his own. "Well done."

Nessa wheeled forward. "It wasn't her fault."

"No, it wasn't," Fiyero agreed, moving closer to Elphaba's side. He was daring Frex with the look on his face. "It was yours."

Frex didn't pull a muscle. Instead, his gaze drifted towards Gazilon.

"And you," he said, nearly spitting the words out, disgust clearly audible in his voice and written all over his face. "From _her_, I had expected this. Ever since she was conceived, she's never done a single thing the way she was supposed to. She is nothing more than a living and breathing disappointment." Fiyero clenched his fists at that, and from the corner of his eyes he could see the way Nessa set her jaw and the way Galinda's eyes flared with anger; but none of them spoke a word. Now was not the time for that.

"But you?" Frex continued, looking Gazilon over contemptuously. "I had expected better of you, boy. Your parents raised you right, didn't they? I thought you, at least, would be strong enough to handle her."

Fiyero bristled at that – no-one should be 'handling' Elphaba, or any other person, for that matter – and Gazilon frowned.

"I don't 'handle' people," he said crossly, obviously as annoyed with Frex' wording as Fiyero was. "And I never agreed with my parents, anyway. I did what I did because I wanted Elphaba to be happy, and I still stand by that. We have done nothing wrong. You have."

"This conversation is over," said Frex curtly. "Nessa, come with me."

The girl folded her arms. "No."

Frex blinked, clearly taken aback by that. "No?" he echoed incredulously.

"No," Nessa said again. "Not until you acknowledge your mistakes and tell Elphaba and Gazilon that you're sorry."

Frex snorted.

"You can have us both," said Nessa firmly, "or you won't have us at all. Elphaba is your daughter, too, Father, and I refuse to let you treat her the way I've let you treat her for too long already. If you turn your back on her, you turn your back on me."

Frex hesitated. He studied Elphaba, noticing the way she cradled her bad arm with one hand and the limp she had, as well as the stitches in her head. He noticed Fiyero's injuries, Galinda and Nessa's emotional state. Gazilon was staring back at him defiantly, but that boy was really the only challenge among them.

Frex pondered on an idea for a few moments. He wanted his favourite daughter back, and the only way to do that seemed to be to apologise to Elphaba and talk things out with her; and so that was what he would do.

He smiled at Nessa as genuinely as he could manage. "You're right, my darling," he agreed, much to everyone's surprise.

He looked at Elphaba, forcing his face into a mask of friendliness. "Elphaba," he said graciously, "why don't you and your friends go and freshen up a bit, and then come by the mansion later this afternoon? We could have tea, and we'll talk. I think we do need to do that – talk. Your sister is right." He nearly choked on the words, but he said them. "I want to make it up to you."

Elphaba looked at him, clearly suspicious; but Nessa seemed to be delighted at this turn of events, Galinda was smiling, and even Gazilon seemed to melt a little. Maybe this change of heart was genuine. He hadn't said he would apologise, or change his mind; but she could grasp the fact that he was willing to try to get along with her if that meant he would have Nessa back.

"Alright," she agreed finally. "We'll come by around four o'clock."

Frex' fake smile widened. "Excellent. I will see you then." He moved behind Nessa's chair to push her away. "Are you happy, my sweet girl?"

"Yes, Father," she replied, smiling. "Thank you." She was glad her father would talk to Elphaba. Maybe they could be a real, happy family after all.

Frex pushed Nessa's chair away from the graveyard and helped her into the carriage before sitting down across from her. The carriage started moving and Nessa looked out of the window, lost in thought.

Frex made a mental list of the things he would need to arrange before tea time came and his newly invited guests would arrive. He could pull it off, he was sure of that. He was confident that he could do it without Nessa getting suspicious, too. After all, Elphaba and Fiyero had both suffered head injuries; it wouldn't be _that _strange if they would suddenly collapse, seize, and die. He'd use different poisons for both of them; an acute one for the prince, and a slow, preferably painful, one for Elphaba. He was sure that if he bribed the local medic, he could get him to tell everyone the cause of death was brain trauma, or internal bleeding, or something like that. Frex wouldn't leave a trace, Nessa would be with him, and that disgusting piece of filth that was supposed to be his eldest daughter would be out of his way.

He smiled triumphantly to himself, knowing he had already won. Elphaba wasn't the only one who was good at acting, and Frex would be even better. They would never know what had hit them.

* * *

**There. The Queen of Cliffies strikes again. Mwahahahahaha! *lightning strikes behind me as I throw my arms in the air and cackle (you know, like my profile pic only with me cackling)***


	22. The tea

**AN: I just love the title of this chapter. _The tea_. It sounds so innocent, so harmless, and yet it's probably the most intense chapter of the story right after the chapter in which the attack on Shiz happened.**

**Hihi, I loved all your reviews! Either murderous towards me, Frex, or both ^_^. Siarenthander, I love that biography! The Wizard Of Wicked, that review was... well... brilliant! xD Between all the threats, people calling Frex Hunters and spurring me on to update, there's your review: "Brilliant." Loved it!**

**Moreanswers24: oh, so you get creative when you get frustrated? :P Loved loved LOVED those lyrics, though. Maybe I should let you write the lyrics for the new Frex Hunters fic (which I may or may not try to put on on April 1st again... when it'll be the first Frex Hunters' one-year anniversary! :O).**

**ThroppSister: I consider that a big compliment :) thank you so much! I loved your review!**

**Now, on with the story!**

* * *

**Chapter 22. The tea**

When they arrived at the Governor's mansion later that afternoon, a servant opened the door.

He bowed curtly when he recognised Elphaba. "Miss Elphaba. Welcome home."

She nodded at him and limped inside, supported by Gazilon, but with her head held high nonetheless. Fiyero followed, leaning heavily on Galinda; and Elphaba could see the servant's eyes widen at the strange picture they made - though to his credit, he didn't say anything.

The servant closed the door and hurried past them. Gazilon helped Elphaba into the sitting room nearby, where he lowered her onto a couch. Fiyero sank down next to her and Galinda flanked Elphaba on the other side. Gazilon remained standing.

Footsteps resounded from the hallway and a few moments later, Frexspar came in. He nodded at the friends.

"Elphaba," he said. "Master Gazilon, Master Fiyero, Miss Galinda. Thank you for coming."

He looked at Gazilon. "Your parents are staying in town at the moment," he said. "You might want to pay them a visit."

Gazilon shook his head stiffly. "I'm fine, thank you."

Frex nodded. "Very well." He would rather have had Gazilon out of the way for this – that boy was too clever for his own good, and he might notice something – but he was confident that he could pull this off even with Gazilon here.

"Fabala!" Nessa came wheeling in, a beaming smile on her face. The two sisters hugged and Nessa moved her chair to stand right beside the couch, next to Galinda. The blonde squeezed the younger girl's hand for a moment, smiling at her, before focusing her attention on Frex again.

"Well, Father?" asked Nessa when he didn't say anything right away.

He cleared his throat. "Yes. Of course. Um, does everyone want tea?" He swallowed and licked his dry lips nervously, silently begging them to say yes.

Fortunately, everyone accepted the offer except for Gazilon – but that didn't matter. The boy was watching Frex like a hawk, eyes slightly narrowed, as if he knew that Frex was up to something, but wasn't sure exactly what it was. When Frex quickly left the room under the pretence of going to find a maid or servant to bring the tea, Gazilon followed him out of the room.

"Governor," he said stiffly once they were alone, "I don't know what you're up to; but I just want you to know that I don't trust it."

Frex snorted. "Honestly, I hadn't expected anything less from you. Let me guess – Elphaba doesn't trust it, either?"

"Of course not," said Gazilon as if that much should be self-evident. "She's a smart girl, you know. Much smarter than you give her credit for. To be completely honest, I think Nessarose is the only one who _really _believes this sudden change of heart."

"It's not a sudden change of heart," Frex snapped, irritated. "And I don't want you all to get the illusion that I am suddenly going to _like_ Elphaba, or treat her like my daughter. I don't like her, never have and never will, and she is _not _my daughter. Honestly, I would prefer for her to drop dead on the spot right this instant." He sighed. "But Nessa _is _my daughter, and I don't want to lose her." He looked at Gazilon sourly. "So if being nice and apologising to Elphaba means that I will get my precious Nessarose back, then it is worth the sacrifice."

Gazilon gave him a long, searching look. Frex looked back, his face an unemotional mask, his eyes cold, not pulling a muscle. He knew everything depended on him being able to convince this boy. Fortunately, Frex knew how to convince people – as he had concluded before, he was a good actor.

Gazilon finally nodded and turned around, walking back into the sitting room. Frex let out a relieved breath.

* * *

"And?" Elphaba asked Gazilon the moment he came back in.

He shrugged. "What you thought," he said. "He hates you, but he's willing to apologise and treat you normally for Nessa's sake."

Nessa's eyes were wide. "What?"

Elphaba shook her head sympathetically. "Oh, Nessie," she said gently. "You didn't honestly expect him to suddenly start loving me, did you? He's not really sorry for what he did. I'm not a daughter to him. I never was. But that's okay."

Nessa sniffled, eyes filled with tears now. "How can you say that?"

"Because," said Elphaba, wiping her sister's tears away and looking into her eyes, "you love him. And just like he's willing to put up with me for your sake, I'm also willing to put up with him for you. I don't want to take him away from you, Nessie. No matter how he has treated _me_ in the past, he has always been a good father to _you_, and you love him. That's enough. We're not going to be best friends or have a real father-daughter relationship, but I promise you I can tolerate him, and I think he can do the same."

Nessa lowered her eyes. "I had just really hoped…" Her voice trailed off.

Elphaba hugged her gently. "I know, my pretty. I know. But it'll be alright."

She let go when Frex re-entered the room and she leant back against Fiyero, who wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his side. Frex gave them all a blinding smile.

"Tea is on the way," he said as he sat down opposite the friends. "Now… let's talk. But before that… Elphaba, Master Fiyero, do you need anything? I've heard you have both been injured rather severely during the attack on Shiz." He was pleased with himself – by bringing up their injuries, reminding everyone of the damage that might have been done, the explanation for Fiyero and Elphaba's demise in the near future would make more sense to everyone and be even more believable.

"We're fine, thank you," said Fiyero stiffly.

"Are you sure?" Frex asked in fake concern. "Have you been checked over completely? No brain damage, internal injuries, no lasting damage done? I imagine it must have been quite the chaos right after the explosions…"

"It was," Galinda agreed softly, with a sad look at the others.

Frex nodded. "I will call for the best physician in all of Munchkinland," he declared, "to make sure you both really are alright."

"That won't be necessary," Elphaba said crossly. "We're fine."

Galinda placed a hand on her friend's arm. "Elphie," she said gently. "Maybe it's not such a bad idea to get yourself and Fiyero checked over by a doctor. I mean, at Shiz it was all very hasty and not very thorough… what if something else is wrong? Something you can't immediately see on the outside?"

Elphaba crossed her arms.

"Please?" the blonde pleaded. "For me?" She pouted.

Elphaba sighed and caved. "Fine," she grumbled.

Fiyero agreed as well.

Frex nodded, trying to look pleased. "Very well, then. I will ask one of the servants to ring for a doctor." He leant forward and looked at his eldest daughter. "Elphaba, I'm sorry."

"No, you're not," she said immediately.

He frowned. "I am," he said. "Look, we may not have the best relationship and granted, I don't know if we ever will; but I do recognise what I've done to you and I am apologising for it."

"You didn't just do it to me," Elphaba reminded him sharply. "You did it to everyone at Shiz. Everyone who_ knew _a person at Shiz and who is now mourning a loved one, or thanking Oz that their loved one survived, despite everything."

"I know." Frex lowered his eyes. "And I truly am sorry."

A servant entered, carrying a tray. He put it on the table and placed a cup of tea before each of the friends, carefully carrying out the instructions Frex had given him. The white cup with the purple roses for Fiyero, the one with a small piece of porcelain missing for Elphaba. He made to walk away, but Frex stopped him.

"Ring Doctor Lewn for me, will you?" he asked her. "My eldest daughter and the prince have been hurt and must be examined by the best physician we have."

The servant nodded and curtsied, then left.

Galinda took a sip of tea. "So if I understand you correctly," she began, "you are willing to make peace with Elphaba?"

"And _don't_," Elphaba cut Frex off before he could even say anything, "start telling crap about you realising you love me and us being a happy family. We all know you do not, nor could you ever, love me; and we will never be the family Nessa has always wanted us to be."

Frex acknowledged that with a curt nod.  
"But we will be civil to one another," he said, his eyes boring into Elphaba's. "Won't we, Elphaba?"

"We will," Elphaba agreed.

Frex smiled. "Good."

The servant came back in and spoke in a hushed voice with Frex, probably about the doctor he had called for.

"Oh, Fiyero," Nessa chirped when she saw Fiyero lifting his cup to his lips. "Would you mind trading cups with me? I always drink from the one with the purple roses – it's silly, really," she said with a small laugh, "but I just prefer that cup over the others."

Elphaba smiled at her a bit sadly. "Because it was Mother's favourite cup?"

Nessa smiled in exactly the same way. "Yes."

Fiyero lowered the cup back to the saucer. "That's alright, Nessa. Here you go." He handed her his cup and accepted hers in return.

Nessa accepted it with a graceful smile. "Thank you."

Frex turned back to the others, smiling. "Doctor Lewn is unable to come by today, but you are all welcome to spend the night here and he will come by in the…"

Just then, Nessa lifted her cup to her lips and took a sip.

Frex immediately recognised the cup and realised what was going on. "Nessa, no!" he cried, cutting himself off.

Everyone stared at him, not understanding.

Then Nessa suddenly collapsed to the floor.

Elphaba's eyes widened when she realised what her father had done. She immediately fell down on her knees next to her sister, feeling in Nessa's neck for a pulse. "What have you _done_?!" she shouted at Frex, beside herself with rage. "How _could _you?! You tried to murder _Fiyero_ to get to me? I knew you were capable of many things, but I never thought you would sink _this _low!" She turned back to Nessa, feeling her sister's forehead, which was covered in a sheen of sweat. Nessa was lying completely still, not moving; and Elphaba could almost feel the younger girl's heartbeat growing fainter beneath her fingertips.

"No, Nessa, please don't," she begged, smoothing her sister's hair away from her face. "Don't die on me, Nessie, not like this. Come on!" She shook Nessa, but of course that didn't help at all.

She looked up at Gazilon desperately. "Do something!"

"What?" He shook his head. "El, I know nothing about medicine… we don't even know what poison it was!"

Elphaba's eyes snapped up to Frex. "What did you use?" she growled.

He spluttered, eyes flickering towards his precious, unconscious daughter dying on the floor; and then he deflated.

"Larysianum," he said, lowering his eyes.

Fiyero swore under his breath.

Elphaba looked at him. "What?" she asked fearfully.

He sighed. "Larysianum grows in the Vinkus as well," he said quietly. He put a hand on Elphaba's shoulder comfortingly, as if trying to soften the blow he was about to deliver. "There is no known antidote."

Elphaba's eyes widened. "What?! No!"

"You did this!" Frex accused her, looking paler than she had ever seen him. "You murdered your sister! You're a curse! All you do is bring horrors to everyone around you!"

"That's not true!" Fiyero protested hotly, but Elphaba yelled, "We don't have time for this! Get Frex out of here, I can't focus with him screaming in my ear!"

Gazilon, with some assistance from Fiyero and even from Galinda, quickly worked Frex out of the room; and the two boys restrained him as Galinda went to find a maid and ordered the poor, confused girl to run into town to find the Gale Force and a doctor.

"And hurry!" she cried after the girl as she ran off.

Elphaba shook her sister again, squeezing her hand and stroking her cheek. "Please, Nessa, wake up," she pleaded. She closed her eyes, knowing it was of no use. Her sister wouldn't wake up. If Fiyero was right about the poison Frex had used, Nessa would never wake up again.

A tingling sensation slowly spread through her body, starting, it seemed, in the pit of her stomach and ending in her fingertips. She recognised the feeling as her magic being activated and she held her breath. Would these weird powers of hers maybe turn out to be of some use after all?

"Please let this work," she whispered, letting her hands hover over Nessa's still body. "Please, please let this work…"

When the boys and Galinda returned to the room, followed closely by a Gale Force soldiers and a doctor, they found Elphaba kneeling on the floor, a soft, emerald-coloured light streaming out of her hands and into Nessa's body. They all stopped abruptly to watch in awe.

Slowly, the light died down; and Elphaba collapsed in a heap on the floor, breathing heavily. Fiyero immediately shot forward to support her and the doctor knelt down next to Nessa.

And then, suddenly, the wheelchair-bound girl opened her eyes and blinked, dazed. "What happened?" she slurred.

Elphaba shot up again. "Nessa!" She crushed her sister in a hug. "Oh, thank Oz!"

"Wow, El…" said Gazilon, impressed. "You saved her life! How did you do that?"

"I don't know." Elphaba shook her head. "I just… tried to think of a way to save her, and then somehow that activated my magic, I think…"

Galinda was just watching with two hands clasped over her mouth and tears in her eyes.

"Fabala?" Nessa said in a small voice.

Elphaba stroked her hair as the doctor started checking her heartbeat and breathing. "Yes, Nessie?"

Nessarose looked up at her. "I promise I will never call your magic sinful again."

Elphaba let out an incredulous laugh and hugged her sister again tightly.

"Miss?" the Gale Force soldier said, trying to get her attention. He gestured to something behind him. "We have taken your father into custody. I understand from Miss Galinda that he tried to poison your sister?"

Elphaba nodded, then shook her head. "He… he tried to poison Fiyero," she said, indicating the Vinkun prince, "but Nessa drank from his tea, and…"

"He's also an ally of the Glikkun terrorists," Galinda chimed in. "Frexspar, I mean."

"We can all testify," Gazilon added. "We have proof. My parents are two of the terrorists – I can help you find them and several others."

The soldier looked impressed. "I'm going to need you to come with me, son," he said.

Gazilon nodded. "Will you be okay?" he asked his friends.

After assuring him they would be, Gazilon left with the Gale Force. Two soldiers dragged Frex past the doorway, and he struggled to a halt, glowering at Elphaba.

"You think this is over?" he hissed at her. "Dream on, little green girl! You may have saved your sister, but trust me - Larysianum is not the only poison I'm familiar with! I will get you, girl, and I will get you good!" Then he was led away by the Gale Force.

"He's crazy," a still-dazed Nessa muttered as she was checked over. She was clearly shocked. "Absolutely, completely crazy… oh, Fabala, I'm so sorry! How could I not see this? I've been so ignorant…"

"It wasn't your fault." Elphaba leant against Fiyero tiredly. "He's just… insane."

He eyed her in concern. "You okay?"

"Just tired," she answered. "Using my magic drains my energy. And I've got a headache."

"Is there anyone I can call for you?" the doctor asked. "A parent, maybe?"

Elphaba shook her head, biting her lip; and Fiyero tightened his grip on her.

"I'll write to my mother by express post," he said.

"No, let me," said Galinda. "Gillikin is closer to Munchkinland than the Vinkus, so my parents will be here sooner; and that way we won't have to bother your mum. She's got enough on her plate already."

Fiyero nodded wearily. "Good thinking."

"Miss Elphaba?" the doctor said, sounding worried. He held up the teacup with the purple flowers. "I used a special herb that can detect several types of poison. I found the larysianum in this teacup, but there's more."

"More?" Elphaba blinked, then sat up straighter. "He poisoned someone else?"

The doctor nodded. "I'm afraid so. Now, the cups are all still full, so maybe the person whom this poison was intended for hasn't taken a sip yet -"

"Did you drink your tea?" Elphaba demanded of Fiyero in a panicky voice.

He settled both hands on her shoulders. "Fae," he said, trying to calm her down. "I drank from what was originally Nessa's cup, remember? I doubt Frex would want to poison Nessarose – you saw his reaction when she accidentally drank the tea with the poison."

Elphaba nodded, though she wasn't really reassured.

"Gazilon?" asked Nessa.

Elphaba shook her head. "He didn't have any tea at all."

Galinda was looking pale. "I drank my tea. Do you think…"

"It's this cup." The doctor held up one of the cups. "It contains essences of exinum root, which is a rare herb that slowly poisons a person's body until they die a few days later. It is slow and very painful, and the antidote is hard to find. I sincerely hope that whoever this cup was intended for did not yet drink their tea, or we might have a problem."

"In that case," Elphaba said, looking pale, "we have a problem."

"It's my cup, isn't it?" Galinda wailed. "Oh, no, I knew it! I'm too young to die!"

"Galinda!" Fiyero and Elphaba shouted at the same time.

"It's not your cup," Elphaba said firmly. "You're fine."

Galinda sniffled and wiped at her nose. "Really?" When Elphaba nodded, the blonde asked in a trembling voice, "Then whose cup is it?"

Elphaba took a deep breath. "Mine."

Fiyero, Galinda and Nessa gasped in unison.

Elphaba managed a small, wry smile. "And I'm sure none of you will be thrillified to hear that I did drink from it."


End file.
